A month is a life time in politics

I remember a month ago saying how the congress is going to have a tough time in the coming elections and how the BJP is going to get a clear cut advantage. A month has gone by and the tables have turned 180 degrees. It seems that the congress is making all the right moves and the BJP is jumping from one mistake to another.

The people associate with the BJP all the right wing groups that are present in India and its justified. Unfortunately for the BJP many of these right wing groups with or without the BJP’s consent are creating havoc. The response the various chief ministers of BJP ruled states give isn’t helping matters either. Many instance of violence by right wing extremist have been witnessed in Karnataka for the past few months. In other words since the BJP came to power in Karnataka, a lot of right wing extremism has emerged. The various statements that the “esteemed” chief minister and the home minister of Karnataka have made, made me conclude that those two are right wing extremist and religious chauvinist. Well what else can be expected from a person who takes decisions on the basis of what his poojari says?

These incidents of right wing extremism do not help the cause of the BJP for the coming elections. People’s memories are very short and all these incidents are happening just before the elections, one can easily imagine what the out come of these incidents will be. On the other hand take the case of the congress. Last December inflation was at record high, prices of basic commodities are off the roof, the Mumbai attacks, and people were questioning the competency of the government. The situation has changed drastically. Fuel prices have come down by more than 7 rupees, prices of commodities are slowly coming down, inflation is supposed to hit 2% by March, the government is being very proactive while dealing with terrorism and Pakistan. The UPA government is making all the right noises. Credit must be given to the new home minister P Chidembaram. He might be doing the same job as what his predecessor has done, but his is able to connect with the masses. People get the impression that work is being done. He has managed to change the perception of the people to a certain extend. Even the Prime Minister looks twice as strong as he was couple of months ago.

General elections are going to happen in little over 2 months time. As we have seen for the recent events a lot can happen in 2 months. At this point I do feel that the UPA has an edge in the coming elections but then again 2 months is a long time. Any thing can happen. No one with full confidence will be able to say what the next government will look like. In fact I believe that even after the results are declared it will be quite hard to predict the core of the next government. As the saying goes there are no permanent enemies in politics.