The survey thus poses a challenge for the ruling coalition and, above all, for the Congress. If they are listening to this signal they have to take a call, sooner than later: how should they respond to their declining political fortune?

Again, there are two ways of responding to this challenge. One way is for the government to buy time to produce results in the next year or more. Political realism appears to be dawning upon the Left and the Congress could take up any of the peace offers to work out a patchwork solution. Even if it can do so, the task it faces is stupendous. The challenge is not just of devising the right economic policies but of forging the right politics for these policies. Controlling what the economist calls ‘inflation’ is necessary but it is not going to be enough. For an ordinary citizen ‘price rise’ is a euphemism for the entire gamut of livelihood issues. The government has to address that big question and be seen to be doing so effectively.

Going by its record in the last three years, that is a tall order for this government. For all its major policy initiatives — NREGA, RTI, Sarva Shiksha, Sachar Committee, Forest Act — the government has displayed little political will or even the desire to evolve a political strategy for taking these beyond the files. The government had nearly killed its own RTI Act. Movement groups like the MKSS have done more to promote the NREGA than the entire Congress party. The Left may have served the Congress more than the Congressmen in reminding the party of its own agenda and manifesto. Indeed, it would be a bold claim that something like the Congress party exists on the ground and that its national leaders exercise any control over its own cadre. It is too much to expect this kind of government and party to reverse its political decline.

... contd.