Currently, we have several examples of just how good the Indian politician is at taking us down just when things are beginning to look good. In Delhi we witnessed last week the extraordinary spectacle of medical students being teargassed and drenched with water cannons because they sought an appointment with Shri Arjun Singh. Was he scared to meet them because in his evil, little heart even he knows that the quotas he proposes for other backward castes are wrong? Does he have no answers because he knows that castes that may have been backward in the late Seventies when Mr B P Mandal made his report are not backward any more? Is he afraid to meet medical students in case they ask if he would be willing to subject himself to the ministrations of a doctor who may have passed his medical examinations only because he was low of caste?

His cousin and fellow Mandaleer, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, is known to have been shameless enough to spend his summers in London at Indian taxpayers’ expense to receive treatment for his kidney problem. When I mentioned this in this column some years ago, he told me in his defence that the reason why he needed to spend the summer in London in a five-star hotel was because English water was cleaner.

He is without a sense of irony or he would have noticed that if Indian water was not good enough for his dialysis why should it be considered good enough for Indians to drink? And, that when he was prime minister what measures did he take to ensure clean water for every Indian and hospitals that ensured suitable standards of dialysis?

Luckily, V P Singh is in semi-retirement but Arjun Singh is still in a position of power and, as this column has pleaded before, it is time he was sacked and the Human Resources Development Ministry closed down. We need a Minister of Education, not this weird hybrid of a ministry that has brought nothing but trouble.

And, while we are talking of people being sacked, it is time that the BJP sacked their charioteer before he takes them any further down his ‘‘yatra’’ to nowhere. Except from his flatterers, all reports from the journey indicate that Shri L K Advani has addressed embarrassingly small crowds. Nobody is interested in his journey and even within his party there are those who admit privately that it is an exercise in futility.

The once mighty BJP is in a bad shape. Nobody gives it a fighting chance at the next general election unless it rids itself of its defunct leaders and comes up with an idea capable of capturing the imagination of young Indians. There is no point in dredging up hatred between Hindus and Muslims because, as recent attacks on temple and mosque have proved, nobody is stupid enough any more to start killing each other because of the activities of a handful of lunatics. Besides, when it comes to Hindutva there is already Uma Bharati on the loose.

Much as I would like to name the names of all the other politicians, especially those of Leftist persuasion who are actively involved in ensuring that India goes down rather than up, I am restricted by the number of words I can fit into this space. But, if you spend a few minutes every morning paying attention to the issues that are being raised in the current spate of elections you will discover for yourself how out of sync with the times our politicians are.

From village to five-star hotel, from small town to metropolis, Indians are united in what they want from our political leaders. Bijli, paani, sadak, school, of course, but also development at double speed so that within the next 20 years we rid ourselves of (not alleviate) the terrible scourge of poverty. Only our political leaders need to keep as many people poor for as long as possible so they can continue to try and fool them with sops like reservations.

write to tavleen.singh@expressindia.com