As we look at the present morass, what is clear is that there is a lack of both vision and will in UPA 2. It is almost as if it is a cricket team batting on the third day of a Test Match to play for a draw or avoid a loss.
How did we get into this situation?
Perhaps, it was hubris. Perhaps, it was a feeling that nothing could go wrong. No one expected the scams to break out as they did over the past year. Of course, these were scams done by much of the same crowd in UPA 1. But given India’s past when everyone always got away with scams, they came to believe that scams will not become public, or even if they did, they would not cause public outrage. But that’s exactly what happened.
But to my mind, the first 100 days of UPA 2 had told us a lot. A big agenda was talked about, and none of it was really started. It was almost as if winning the 2009 election absolved everyone not just of past sins but also of the responsibility to deliver. And this is where the leader failed.
Continued tomorrow.
