Caution Congress

In a front-paged write up, titled 8220;Bipolarity gets a boost: spectacular BJP win in MP, Chattisgarh; Congress in Delhi...

In a front-paged write up, titled 8220;Bipolarity gets a boost: spectacular BJP win in MP, Chattisgarh; Congress in Delhi, Mizoram, Rajasthan8221;, R Balashankar observes: 8220;In the year-end both the ruling coalition and the opposition are equally poised. Congress retains one, snatches two. BJP retains two. On the face of it, it is advantage Congress after the much-hyped 2008 polls to five state assemblies. In 2004, a similar dress rehearsal for the general election proved deceptive for the BJP. Will the same hold true for the Congress in 2009? Likely. Before the poll, the Congress claimed to win all the five states on the plank of local factors. National issues don8217;t count, this is no election for the Lok Sabha, the party said. After the poll, the Congress is arguing that the outcome is an endorsement of its national policies. The BJP on the other hand says local issues dominated the 2008 poll debate. Has the law of diminishing returns come to operate in terror and inflation discourse? Unless the Centre was seen as the culprit for both, would the BJP have won Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh?8221;

He adds: 8220;The UPA has more to worry about the current round of reverses in the assembly polls, though the media is projecting it as a setback for the BJP. The BJP has demonstrated that it can beat anti-incumbency and get elected on the strength of its record of governance. This was proved earlier in Gujarat. The odds are not even.8221;

Hail Sheila 8216;aunty8217;

The journal has something interesting to say about Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. 8220;The Congress made history by winning Delhi under its 8216;aunty number one8217; Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for a record third term. Delhi witnessed a gravitation of anti-BJP votes under the Congress. Credit for the Congress win is entirely due to Sheila Dikshit who put in a meticulous constituency-wise election management for the last many months. The changed demographic profile of Delhi has made the BJP task Herculean. But above all this, what helped the Congress win Delhi was BJP8217;s overconfidence.8221;

Balance of power shifts

In a piece titled 8220;End of globalisation, as we know it8221;, Bharat Jhunjhunwala writes: 8220;Where did the model go wrong from the perspective of the developed countries? There was misplaced trust in continuous development of new technologies. The US left no stone unturned in having the TRIPS agreement included in the WTO. The underlying idea was that gains from exports of advanced technologies will be huge and more than compensate for the loss of employment due to cheap imports. The gains were indeed huge, but, only as long as new technologies were being developed. Absence of a new technology since then has deprived the Western countries of this steam of monopoly incomes. Now they have to fend for themselves against China and India on the strength of cheap production alone. 8221;

Compiled by Suman K Jha