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COVER
STORY: INDIA TODAY/ORG-MARG SURVEY
A
Test of Loyalties
The
prime minister's post-Kumarakom thrust for speedier reforms may face resistance
but the poll shows there is also a vast constituency waiting to embrace
change. The key to success, it would seem, lies in simultaneously controlling
inflation and generating additional employment by providing a conducive
environment for business.
The opinion
poll suggests that there is a very wide measure of acceptance of the prime
minister's recent initiatives. The cease-fire in Kashmir is endorsed and
there is an acceptance of the need to talk with Pakistan. Only in Gujarat,
where the support for the BJP seems quite resounding, is there a measure
of scepticism. This may be an indication that when it comes to nationalism,
Vajpayee's main problem is likely to come from within his own parivar.
The prime
minister's reluctance to carry the "national sentiment" of the
past on Ayodhya into the present tense may well test corporate loyalties.
But even on Ayodhya, there is only a small 20 per cent support for unilaterally
constructing a Ram temple on the disputed site. This feeling is strongest
among the illiterate. The flip side is the 5 per cent who want a mosque
rebuilt. This includes nearly 20 per cent of Muslims. An overwhelming
56 per cent, however, endorse the Vajpayee formula of either a negotiated
settlement or a judicial verdict. Among Muslims, support for these two
options is as high as 62 per cent.
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| While
Vajpayee remains popular rising prices have created an anti-incumbency
mood among people against Chandrababu Naidu's TDP in Andhra Pradesh |
More important,
only some 14 per cent identify Ayodhya as the most important issue before
the Vajpayee Government. But there are some curious regional patterns,
with an exceptionally high interest in the matter in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan
and Uttar Pradesh in the north and Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in
the south. However, the importance attached to Ayodhya is easily overshadowed
by a feeling that the Government should devote its mind to more temporal
matters such as controlling prices, giving farmers a good deal and providing
jobs. Vajpayee, like P.V. Narasimha Rao before him, knows this too. Which
is why he has chosen to outflank Ram with another winner, Lakshmi.
That, in
a sense, is the central message of this poll. Having tasted political
stability, the voters are now crying out for performance that reflect
on their daily lives. They are impressed by neither a hyped Naidu if he
can't control prices in Andhra Pradesh nor bleeding heart Digvijay Singh
if he can't fight corruption in Madhya Pradesh. Nor does sentimentalism
carry the day. Jyoti Basu doesn't prevail in West Bengal and Vajpayee
is only a whisker away from being worsted by Sonia in Uttar Pradesh. Dravidian
nationalism comes to Vajpayee's help in Tamil Nadu and family past is
no barrier to Sonia in Punjab.
Stability,
it would seem, has its charms. It gives people the space to reflect, experiment
and mature. This poll is a pointer that in the coming days Indian politics
may well become more demanding by becoming less turbulent. That's real
progress.
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METRO TODAY
As
the Government brings in more people and mops more money in taxes, it
must be seen to be rewarding those who come forth and pay up, writes India
Today Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 