According to Singh, the government has also manipulated this by not increasing certain prices such as those of diesel -- if they had followed the principle of global price-parity for diesel as approved of by the Cabinet, they would have had to increase prices by around 30 per cent. This hike will now take place after the elections. Once this happens, Singh says, transport costs will go up and therefore the inflationary spiral will once again threaten us. Singh added that the money supplyfor the third year in a row is increasing at 18-19 per cent and the fiscal deficit is out of control -- in which case, the low inflation is only temporary.

Interestingly, though his party has vociferously opposed the government's telecom package, Manmohan is not so vocal. He says the problem is the hush-hush manner in which things were done -- ``For 13 months they slept and when elections were announced they went ahead.'' Add to this the fact that the original communications minister Jagmohan and finance minister Sinha were both opposed to the package, says Manmohan, and there's clearly a problem.

Singh says that not just issues like the telecom deal, there are a host of other issues which will come up in the election campaign. Why, for instance, he asks, is Indian Airlines being forced to buy 50-seater aircraft that it doesn't want?

The government, Singh says, has never been straightforward about anything. When they exploded the bomb they said it will have no economic consequences but within a fewmonths they recognised that was all tall talk, then they ran helter skelter. When the BJP came to office they said they will curb multinationals on an anti-foreigner plank but under the pressure of the balance of payments and under the American pressure they went on this path of letting in multinationals -- even in low priority areas.