Poll Position

Ravi Paranjpe,artiste
I welcome this government,but only as a temporary arrangement. We call ourselves,the biggest democracy in the world and what disturbs me often,is the fact that rather than having so many political parties,we should have a two-party system like many developed countries. In fact if one keenly observes,BJP and Congress are two parties the agendas of which,other than the communal policies,are the same- for instance,there is not much difference between their foreign policies,America policy,Indo-Pak related theories and so on. So the ideal scenario would be that these two come together to form a strong government. What needs to be sorted and streamlined is the political culture,which,in designing terms,I call- design based culture.

Pradeep Apte,professor
If you carefully analyse the scenario,in politically important as well as bigger states like Madhya Pradesh,Gujrat,Bihar,Orissa and Karnataka,Congress has not got clearcut support. It thus goes without saying that UPA will have to struggle a lot in order to define and make their state related policies work. The positive sign is that the clean sweep by the Congress will accelerate decision-making,which can impart new direction to the economical policies of the nation.

Madhav Gadgil,senior environmentalist
The existing government triggered some very good initiatives such as- Right to Information act,Vanadhikar and so on. Though implementation of these initiatives can be questionable,I believe that the UPA government will take serious steps towards implementation of the same. Also,I am hopeful that some very serious and concrete steps will be taken towards safety of the nation.

Sheetal Kulkarni,musician
I personally do not keep a track of Indian politics and somehow my profession is not directly affected by the political turbulences. I am personally a supporter of the Congress party as I feel that this is the only stable national party the foundation of which is not religion.

Kunal Ray,student
as a representative of the youth of the city as well as country,I can say that the youngsters today would never want a communal government to take charges. I am personally happy with the fact that the government is a continuation of the same ruling party,which means that they will get time to fulfill the promises that they’ve made during their tenure.

Amitabh Mehta,lawyer
The result clearly shows that people have preferred a single largest party to an alliance of many smaller parties with a big one,keeping in mind the unhindered growth that is possible only when a single party would come to power. However,Congress would have to still keep in mind the poor turnout of voters and that it is the choice of who voted. The clean sweep by the Congress suggests that people want a stable government.

Deepak Khandelwal,IT professional
I am happy with the new government. Most of my concern was about the change of policies related to the IT and ITES industry,which follow post the change of government,but I am happy that the current policies will continue,as this government is the continuation of the same.