With the UPA having fundamentally become UP Agenda, the alliance has switched horses, and perhaps even riders, four-fifths of the way through. Politicians are a convenient scapegoat for everything that goes wrong and inevitably, ensuing horse-trading will vindicate this belief. However, we should spare a thought for Prakash Karat and the Left. In a system where politicians are perceived to be an unprincipled lot, the Left has at least stood up for what it believes to be its principles, though ruffled egos have also contributed. It is a separate matter that most of us don’t agree with those principles. Every country gets the government it deserves. Contrary to impression, this expression didn’t originate with Aristotle, or assorted US presidents. It’s a quote from Joseph Marie De Maistre (1811). Under the Constitution, the government has different strands. While lambasting politicians, let’s remember legislatures are elected. Unlike other organs of government, politicians (at least elected ones) are accountable to citizens once every five years, if not with greater frequency. If we have a mess today, we collectively have ourselves to blame for choices exercised in 2004. These are choices we will again have to exercise not in 2008, but certainly in 2009. Sensible choice requires information.

For some time, robust information didn’t exist. Thanks to the Election Commission’s insistence on affidavits from candidates, for the 2004 elections to Lok Sabha, we have data and these were analysed for 541 (not 543) winning MPs. Unfortunately, this analysis by the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bangalore, has not been disseminated sufficiently. Understandably, information is constrained by questions asked through those affidavits. Subject to this, we know the following.

... contd.