For roughly two weeks, a few weeks back, Bangaloreans in various parts of the city would wake up in the mornings to a pleasant surprise from the government. The main roads in their areas would have been tarred overnight, and it would be a fairly pleasant ride or drive to any other part in town. Over those two industrious weeks, most of the select roads were given, er, a fresh coat of tarred chips.
The pressing reason for this routine work to be carried out on a war footing were well-nigh obvious – election dates were expected to be announced any day and the prospects of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government being thrown out of power appeared more than probable. Willy-nilly, the Karnataka government proved an axiomatic truth – that if a government wants to do something, it certainly can. It is true that the roads were only given a skin-deep makeover and not surgically re-laid as should have been the case.
What is also true is that a task was set out by the party planners, and the job was executed with precision. After nine infertile months, chief minister Siddaramaiah had felt the compelling need to be productive, to shrug off the embarrassing tag of impotency. It is not that curses for the Congress government in the state have now turned into blessings from the people of the capital, but it is one cause of headache less for the beleaguered dispensation.
The chief minister has innumerable tasks at hand, and since not all problems can be solved, the wily Congressman picked one that is relatively easy to implement – ‘repairing’ of roads. After all, among all civic problems besides water, roads are probably ones that hit people the most and elicit cusswords from friends and foes alike. In all likelihood, the move will not pay off for Siddaramaiah and his party. It is way too little, way too cosmetic, and possibly way too late in the day.
But it is not the Lok Sabha prospects of the Congress in the state that one is talking about here – it is about unfruitful governments that refuse to act, unless pushed by a compulsion. It is a no-brainer to assert that nothing shakes elected rulers (read, politicians) from their perennial lethargy and virtual sterility more than the frightening odds of a resounding defeat at the hustings. Unfortunately, thrusting the bugbear of elections on both politicians and the people is neither practicable nor desirable.
On the other hand, filing public interest litigations against parliamentarians and legislators can be both tedious and frivolous, and invoking a new mechanism for the right to recall an elected representative (as was demanded by the India Against Corruption agitation) can turn out to be Quixotic and whimsical as well. Yet, only if this fear factor were to be codied and institutionalised, could we possibly see governments acting in the interests of the people rather than their own myopic ones.
We need to find a way out – one that is feasible.
