The ... lack of governance combining with divisive politics of religion and caste is providing a bonus to the Congress which is likely to sweep the polls without much effort and despite a leader who has the greatest difficulty in speaking the Hindi language. The Congress has little to do but to keep away from alignments of religion and caste.

As time goes by, the "sweep" syndrome will be more evident ...

There are ever new outrageous acts visible in public life and millions of words will be written to express sentiments of the moment till a new tragedy strikes at the nation's conscience. The hard reality is that politics of religion and caste have held complete sway over the vote banks, and political parties, whether secular or otherwise, have always endeavoured to woo them. Backward and forward arguments or the minority-majority syndrome – all have a political meaning. The electorate has often voted for a change after giving a brute majority to a party in the past, since all that such a verdict resulted in was political vendettas. The electorate may vote with a brute majority again, and if past experience is an indicator then we are likely to return to the politics of dynastic succession with its inherent weakness and constant insecurity.

As a consequence of these and other things, we are stumbling from one disaster to another ... The "supreme leader" syndrome, therefore, does not exist in any mature democracy. The leader has to battle his way to the top in his own party by merit while the electorate debates the major issues. India has a system of single, "supreme leaders" and dynastic succession; there are hundreds of dynasties, both at the Centre and in the states.

Such dependence on individuals and families will produce extreme reactions and create divisions in society ... We need a supreme leader elected by the people directly. As things stand today, we will have a supreme leader and the question is whether we would like to elect him by a democratic vote or will he surface without a vote!

Fence-siting is the national pastime. However, time is running out for all of us. January and February are usually good months for several reasons, but shortages of all types can suddenly emerge as summer draws nearer. We are heading for a year of conflicts, secular and non-secular agendas, majority and minority issues, more oppression against weaker and backward sections. Such divisions and sub-divisions within society into different power chambers for electoral and monetary gains can never generate stability. We can blame each other for the situation coming to such a pass. Or we can blame the world. But can we look beyond our noses, into the future, and try and rectify all that has gone wrong?           (Source: The Pioneer, 1 February, 1999)