FE Editorial : Maha responsibility

Fri, Oct 23 12:22 PM

It has pulled off a double hat-trick, and the Congress combine, therefore, has much reason to celebrate. Not only has it retained power in all the three states whose assembly election results were declared yesterday, it's set to form a third successive government in Maharashtra—supposedly India's richest state. It could, of course, take the results as a simple endorsement of its governance so far. But the smarter partymen know better, and acknowledge it. In big part, the combine's success reflects the failure of its opposition. The BJP appears in disarray across the national stage. While disarray is de rigueur among losing parties, the BJP should have gotten its act together since the general election lost—the second in a row. But it hasn't. In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena's votebank being hit by factor MNS—which has now opened its account—is just one aspect of how dissidence is debilitating the BJP combine on all fronts. As the election results poured in, the opposition was clutching at straws for defence—like, the ruling party had manipulated the results via "electronic victory machines". Where does the BJP think it is, Afghanistan?

Still, we need to remind the Congress combine to heed ground reality and face up to the many governance failures of the last few years. During the election campaign, the party promised everything from making the state an international financial centre to a stronger connect with the Centre—suggesting that, say, West Bengal and Orissa's sufferings were caused by the lack of such a connect. But, after all, back in 2004 the PM had promised that Mumbai would be polished into a Shanghai. There is little to indicate that that vision will come to pass in the foreseeable future. Or, take the project that's been grist for the mill for editorialists—the Mumbai airport. Forget the new one that remains mired in tussles between various ministries, even the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport—which aims to become one of the world's top 20 airports by 2013—still boasts a runway cluttered with hundreds and thousands of shanties, which should have been resituated years ago. Outside Mumbai, bullock ploughs rendering marginal farming—as antiquated an Indian picture as possible—remain a common sight. No wonder, per capita foodgrain production in the state is much less than that in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Within the maximum city itself, NFHS-3 found 40% of the children aged less than three malnourished. Or, take chronic power shortages. And so the list can go on. We wish the winning parties the best. But we also wish that they would do better than they have over their last two terms.

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