The Lonesome Road

[Translation : This country of mine…]

I think it’s time that India abolished this n-party system that we have as of now and established a US style two party system. In our country, anyone with ten people to “support” (i.e provide muscle and finance) can start a party. Also, there are parties within parties. I’m pretty sure no one knows the number of political parties (not to mention independents) who contest the elections.

The fallout of this is that the government in the Centre usually ends up as a coallition government. Of course, after independence, the Congress party enjoyed a single party majority rule for a long time. Then the BJP managed it for all of 13 days before a no-confidence vote called a fresh round of elections. The problem lies in the fact that every party has it’s own agenda to push (of course, this is the one beyond the common agenda of trying to make money). Thus, when you have a multi-party government, there is bound to be a certainamount of stress and strain when policies are implemented.

The situation is escalated this time as the ruling government is made (primarily) of the Congress party and the Left (Communist) Party. One of the major policy decisions for the Congress was the privatization of the PSUs (Public Sector Units). However, this is one policy the Left wants scrapped. Now, to be perfectly honest, West Bengal which is a major bastion of the Left has gone from an economic powerhouse to a state where no one wants to set up more industry. This is mostly due to the fact that the workers union is very strong in the state and they do not hesitate in resorting to violence.

The policy schism came to the fore when the Left called a nation-wide general strike yesterday. From the reports on Rediff, the call has been a successful one and most states were left paralysed. The hardest hit were the banking and airline services. One can imagine the amount of loss faced. Thankfully, in most parts of the country, essential services were not hit.

Hopefully, things will go back to normal now (or as normal as they can get), The Left has flexed it’s muscles and let the Congress know that they will not sit around. It’s the turn of the Congress now to decide how they react to the affair.

May God give them sense.

Until next time!