Listen to aam aadmi

What is wrong with the aam aadmi? He should be sending chilling messages of doom and defeat for those in Delhi who rule in the name of liberal economics. Some very distinguished aadmis who live and think in the national capital have been telling us that out there, in the real India, reforms are stoking a rebellion. That as long as the Congress doesn8217;t shed the reforms baggage, it doesn8217;t have a snowball8217;s chance in hell to come back to power. Whether or not the Congress beats national incumbency is not our concern. What is, is whether reforms are vote-killers. So, what to make of the CNN-IBN opinion poll that gives the Manmohan Singh-led Congress coalition government over 300 seats? The Congress is projected to win a staggering 240 seats, almost a 100-seat increase from its 2004 Lok Sabha tally. Could it just be that the aam aadmi has other ideas?

He may be much more aspirational than assumed by left-leaning chattering classes. He may have absolutely no problem with PSUs being sold, with rich South Delhi, South Bombay families paying Rs 60 per kg of tomatoes, with retail being opened up, with foreign investment being made easier, with Coke and Pepsi continuing to do business and with a dozen other things that provoke some people in Delhi to say 8220;neo-liberal8221; as if it is a four-letter word. Big-ticket second-generation reforms may not necessarily be short-term vote winners. But they don8217;t make you lose elections. There8217;s so much evidence on this8212;the CNN-IBN poll is another8212;that one must conclude that some people won8217;t simply see facts.

Well, some of these people will have to start. The opinion poll shows the Left hasn8217;t increased its influence one bit in all these months of reforms bashing. It also tells them Manmohan Singh8217;s economics is going down pretty okay. The Congress8217;s regional allies must think, too. The Congress seems to be taking the UPA forward. Indeed, if in any real election, one of the two national parties get around 240 seats, regional parties would be only minimally relevant. The regionals should start getting real from now. So must Congress bigshots sighing about socialism. As for Dr Singh, he must push his economics without apology or hesitation. As for Sonia Gandhi, she must produce the right politics to help Dr Singh.