Vote done, over to sadak, bijli and paani

The Govt, now in a comfortable position and the safeguards agreement put before the IAEA, is expected to pay more attention to the prices of essential commodities.

The challenges before the government during the next six months seems to be too many. Internationally, it has to deal with the developed and developing countries to push through the nuclear deal, while back home, it will have to concentrate on basic development issues like sadak, bijli, aur pani.

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Though the victory in the trust vote has come as an energy booster, the question is how spiraling inflation would be controlled before the assembly elections. Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, J&K, Rajasthan and Delhi are scheduled to go to polls later this year. This is also critical for the party in the run-up to the general elections.

But the government, now in a comfortable position and the safeguards agreement put before the IAEA, is expected to pay more attention to the prices of essential commodities.

“The trust vote gave the government the mandate to proceed on the Indo-US nuclear agreement which would be taken to a logical conclusion now. We will now go forward with new energy to tackle the problems of poverty, unemployment and farmer’s issues,” Jayanthi Natarajan, Congress spokesperson said.

Drawing flak for pushing forward the deal, which does not form part of the CMP, the Congress is now strategising on using the deal in the context of common minimum needs of people, like power. This was evident in Sonia Gandhi’s public speech last week and Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Lok Sabha where both of them projected the deal as essential to the common man.

The next few months are also expected to witness several reforms, which at present are stagnant at various stages. These include Bills on the unorganised sector workers, right to education, pension funds and reforms in the banking and insurance sectors, among others.

Meanwhile, it was jubilation everywhere in the Congress office, with party cadres from all over the country coming here to celebrate the victory of the UPA government in the trust vote.

Congress chief and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met party general secretaries and various leaders from the states, exchanging pleasantries on Tuesday’s victory, termed by the party as “historic and a clear mandate for the Prime Minister and his government.”