Are we headed for a mid-term poll? Whenever any prime minister denies vehemently that there is no question of a mid-term poll, chances are that there will be one. It is so predictable. Why can?t leaders just say, ?I really do not know what the future holds. Anything can happen.? Why are they forever in some kind of denial? As an observer of the rather confused political scene that has enveloped us all, a mid-term poll towards the end of this year seems to be in the offing. It also seems right to pay back the left in its own language. The non-stop ?blackmail? by the left parties, their constant bickering about modernization and change, their repetitive threats of pulling the rug, will soon compel the Manmohan Singh government to go to the polls in sheer frustration. Better that than the daily left charade we are forced to witness, one that makes a mockery of the aspirations of the Indian people.

Outside Delhi and some metropolitan cities, this Congress-led government at the Centre is respected. The prime minister and Sonia Gandhi are respected. The Bharatiya Janata Party, as they launch their flimsy attack on everything around them, are increasingly being seen as the brat party in a sulk, overwhelmed by stacks of sour grapes. The animal called the ?third front? is a collection of aging has-beens, unacceptable as future leaders to 80 per cent of young India. Even to middle-aged me, they are scary in their petrified ideological space. When you juxtapose the ongoing hysterical attacks by the BJP leaders on Sonia Gandhi, and all those who are part of her dispensation, to the measured responses and interventions of the prime minister and others in his government, it clearly puts the opposition in a rabble-rousing garb. They are increasingly being seen as disruptive, unnecessarily abusive of a dignified woman, and rudely confrontational with a man of integrity and dignity.

Muffled cries

Real and constructive criticism of this government and its rather inept management of the many issues of governance, has not happened. There has been no serious debate, no counterpoint arguments backed by good sense and empirical evidence, nor any intellectual input from colleagues in the opposition. The attack has been childish and superficial and, therefore, embarrassing. The Congress party president has worked to get responses and interventions from a band of NGOs which constitute the National Advisory Council, but even they appear to have been inducted into the establishment. Soon the party will begin to be out of sync with the new realities in India. In their confident complacency, they will close their eyes, ears and minds to all the alarms that well-wishers will begin to raise. They will, predictably, see all dissension and questioning as antagonistic stances and that will herald their doom in the political space. If they hear and listen to other voices they will rectify, regroup, refocus and garner more support by the time they are forced into a situation of calling the bluff of the left and dissolving parliament.

If Ahmad Patel and Oscar Fernandes are going to strangle the new sprouts in the Congress, if they are going to perpetuate the stale, failed tactics that have been intrinsic to Congress culture, if they stymie the change and fresh energy and aspirations, methodologies and operations of the young in the fold because they are insecure about their personal futures, they will set back yet another opportunity the Congress party has to revive and rejuvenate itself. Uttar Pradesh is desperately waiting for a leadership. The Congress needs someone to step out of the box, to discard caste and class, to talk the truth, simple realities and correctives that make living worthwhile. Start with that alone and stop politicking, intrigue and back-biting, still rampant in Uttar Pradesh. The rest will follow.