Ashutosh Varshney, while analyzing the Food Bill, writes in Indian Express,” Democratic politics cannot easily be envisioned without the idea of winning power… Even a dying government thinks of rebirth.” (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-costs-of-no-food-security/1140754/)
Any day food politics is better than ‘nationalist Hindu’ politics, as it would end up feeding 60 per cent hungry Indians, not dividing the nation on myopic religious lines. (Yes, fair implementation of the Food Act will be an issue, given our penchant for cuts and commissions.) Given the UPA-II misrule, for Modi, sans the baggage of the 2002 Gujarat riots, the 2014 polls would have been a sitter in front of an empty D and goal. But the Gujarat strongman is well aware of the damaging fallout of the 2002 riots on the voting machines outside Gujarat in the 2014 battle. Amit Shah may or may not win UP for Modi, but if the latter popularizes the steps (if any???) he has taken for good governance and to rid the government functioning of chai-pani or commission culture in Gujarat, then no Amit Shah or ‘Hindu nationalist’ song is required to anoint Modi as PM. But a blueprint to fight corruption and any clear-cut stand on Lokpal Bill may not be easy to get from the Gujarat ‘strongman’ for two reasons. One, the governments in India function more or less in the same way, but some like Manmohan Singh’s give too much liberty to their ministers to do whatever they want to, and then face the scam music. Two, Gujarat has gone for a Lokayukta Act that heavily favours the government of the day, so at this moment, Modi would like to keep mum on the Lokpal Bill.
Surprisingly, going by two surveys, only 18 per cent (the HT survey) and 10 per cent (The Week survey) Indians consider corruption to be a major issue.