‘The Tribune-Chatterati’8th.March.2010

Even though it is just one year now of the Manmohan Singh’s Government, the Congress party finds itself in a bit of a fix. In 2009 elections the Congress came back with a larger majority and confidently formed the Government in the Centre. But unfortunately due to the coalition era the Congress depends on the Trinamool Congress, the NCP and the DMK mainly.
How well NCP Chief Sharad Pawar has performed as Agriculture Minister everyone now knows. He did not work hard enough to bring prices down, his predictions of more price rise actually got prices up in the market. The economic logic of simple supply side shortages not being able to account for the astronomical rise in prices of basic commodities is seemingly beyond him.
Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee is still totally based in Bengal alone. She is preparing for the 2011 Assembly elections rather than attending Cabinet meetings and looking after the Indian Railways. The amount of recurring accidents ever since she has taken over and the need for taking steps of prevention for no more accidents does not seem to matter to her. It is really low on her agenda right now.
Down South DMK’s A. Raja and MK Alagiri, are of course the limits. The loss Mr. Raja caused to the Aam Admi by allocating 2G spectrum at throwaway prices. Mr. Alagiri like Mamata spends more time in Tamil Nadu than Delhi. The most unfortunate fact is that the Prime Minister, critically dependent on his allies, can do precious little to make this errand flock of ministers fall in line. Maybe the voter should learn from this about voting for the parties with a pan-India agenda in parliamentary elections.