Reforms Are Dead; Long Live Reforms ; the Congress or Its Allies Have Come to Power in Elections to Four States and a Union Territory. So, Why Does Everyone Have a Mixed Feeling About the Future of Reforms?

Summary

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The congress would like everyone to think that results of recent elections in four states and one Union Territory signal a victory for its policies and the governance of its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre. After all, its allies, DMK in Tamil Nadu and the Left parties in Kerala and West Bengal, have won in three states, and the Congress itself has returned to power in Assam and Pondicherry. If victory is all about denying your competitors, then the Congress had indeed won. However, fact is, the Congress has lost power in Kerala, only just managed to cling on in Assam and seen its performance in West Bengal deteriorate (it has made some gains in Tamil Nadu). At a political level, that could well mean India has taken another step towards making national parties less relevant. With the economy on a roll, however, and the world beginning to recognise India as an economic power in the making, the crucial question is this: what happens to reforms?

Prakash Karat, General Secretary, CPI(M), is quite clear what does (or rather, doesn't). "We will now be more interventionist at the Centre," he says. "We will actually play the role of the UPA government's conscience." That would mean that UPA sticks to the spirit and letter of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), a guideline for governance that it co-authored with the assistance of the communist parties in 2004. And that would mean that the remaining period of UPA's reign sees even fewer reforms than the first 24 months have. If there is hope for UPA (and for reforms), it comes from the fact that the gains of the Left parties in Kerala will be offset to some extent by internal differences (as has been evident in the run-up to naming a Chief Minister), and from the fact that at least some see the industry-friendly Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as the new face of the Left. "Buddha will now play a more important role in national politics," says veteran communist leader Jyoti Basu, former cm of West Bengal. The man himself is more cautious about his role, maintaining that he will "stand by whatever is good for the state". In most cases, that would be reforms, although Kerala's LDF (Left Democratic Front) government will surely disagree: clearances issued to three key projects, the Smart City technology park in Kochi, the Vallapardam Container Terminal and the container trans-shipment terminal at Vizhinjam will probably be revisited by it.

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Reforms Are Dead; Long Live Reforms ; the Congress or Its Allies Have Come to Power in Elections to Four States and a Union Territory. So, Why Does Everyone Have a Mixed Feeling About the Future of Reforms?

Still, UPA (and people who are in favour of reforms) can take heart from the fact that results to the elections do not indicate the emergence of a third, ideologically-opposed-to-reforms, front tha...

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