If you are done with austerity, how about some accountability?
"Lakhs of people across the state took just 10 hours to make up their minds, wonder what's taking these leaders more than 2 weeks without reaching a solution...!'' said a police constable on bandobast duty. In his frustration, he summed up the mood of the common man.
We've now got familiar with what's turning out to be a routine of sorts. It's almost as if a director called for 'lights, camera, action' and the players, in this case the politicians from the Congress and NCP, begin their negotiations. Only the venue seems to change - although the haggling continues...so does the deadlock.
So, almost a fortnight after the results, in spite of the people giving the Congress-NCP a clear mandate, the result is a big zero. We have a Chief Minister, a deputy chief minister, but no cabinet, and hence no government. Crucial issues like price rise, falling agricultural production, continuing farm suicides are all on hold because the people's representatives don't have time for the people who put them there. And to think that the clear mandate was to avoid exactly this kind of uncertainty and bargaining!
In the first week itself, we heard enough and more leaders give the rather original soundbite of 'the high command will decide' variety. Bad enough that we have to deal with these kind of responses that they follow it up with another week of shadow boxing.
The NCP says that they want to stick to the 1999 formula where the seats were split 50-50. Perhaps they forgot that they didn't have any pre-poll alliance then, like they have now. And the Congress chief minister designate was in Mumbai when national level Congress leaders were holding meetings in Delhi to work on his government saying he would go to Delhi if the high command called him.
In a scenario where all roads to Mumbai go via Delhi, it's perhaps not surprising to hear such statements. But the bigger question before the people today is that even after NCP-Congress have such a clear edge in terms of numbers, they are indulging in such blatant bargaining before the government is in place. Now the question is what will they do over the next 5 years?
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Ketki Angre is a Special Correspondent with NDTV and has been working in the electronic media since 2004. She has covered a range of stories from the 26/11 attack to the 26/11 trial, besides a range of political, social, legal and city reports.
