Country's bane: Bad economics, poor politics

The country has got into election mode. The thumping victory of BJP in Gujarat, its defeat in Himachal Pradesh and Delhi MCD polls are being interpreted in different ways by political analysts and non-BJP parties. Even though it was a feeble victory for Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the party continues to claim that Aab ki Baar it is their Sarkar. The other non-BJP parties say that if they unite, Aab Ki Baar it would be front Sarkar.

The BJP which started discussions to redraw its poll strategies for Karnataka elections and 2024 Lok Sabha elections seems to have come to the conclusion that it is most important to fix the cracks in the party and focus more on micromanagement lest the enduring appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not bring good results and put the saffron party back in power. They have taken the results of Himachal Pradesh as a case study. United BJP in Gujarat reaped highest results and Modi's appeal worked wonders but in Himachal it got a different verdict though the fight was neck to neck.

So far, the plus point for BJP is that the opposition parties have not given any indication that they would take on the BJP unitedly.

They continue to be as divided as they were. The biggest problem is that every regional party leader from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, everyone is a PM aspirant and most of the regional parties are dynastic parties and the latest in the list is DMK.

The country unfortunately is passing through a phase where bad economics and bad politics have become the order of the day. The rising expenditure of the state, heavy borrowings, interest payments, expenditure on salaries and wages, and pensions mean that less revenue is available with the state governments for development expenditure. But who cares? What they are interested in is only to come to power or retain power. The general feeling is announce as many freebie-based schemes as you can, put votes on auction, pick up the policies like old pension scheme which the Centre had decided to do away with, assure employees that they would revert to it and come back to power, knowing fully well that under the old scheme one-fifth of the state's revenue expenditure is now spent on paying the pensions bill and it is not possible to re-introduce. Once in power, they will not say 'No' but will keep on dragging the issue in the name of talks with employees' unions, constitute committees and come up with a hybrid scheme which the employees will reject and the issue would remain hanging fire.

No party is bothered to put a check on people with criminal background in politics nor are they interested in brining down the poll expenditure. It is high time, for the BJP or any other regional party, that anti-incumbency, lack of robust organisation, and failure in micromanagement can cause great damage to them and no appeal – emotional or charisma – can translate into votes.