Costly divorce

On the eve of national polls, both Congress and the Left are hard put to keep old political friends.They must be ruing today, their needless parting of ways at the fag end of UPA-I .UPA-II  then suffered two far reaching and adverse consequences . One, the liberal leaning NAC went on an overdrive of welfare schemes, since the Left was not there to share credit for such largesse and nation's fiscal economics was turned on its head even as adverse external and global factors induced monetary and systemic shocks on an economy that is seeing lowest growth and highest CPI  inflation. Second and perhaps even more important.The Congress now, had none in its fold to sound  the alarm or raise Cain over corruption. The Left had for long been given this role and was lending  its  shoulders for Congress  to fire on errant allies.Bereft of this time- trusted tool, the Congress found itself in an  administrative stasis and lost command over a disillusioned bureaucracy. Governance  became  adrift  and its low profile PM, a gentle family  physician  not cut out for decisive surgical interventions, was  helpless at the Congress's steep decline.

Pub Hindu Mar 8
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/runup-to-the-election/article5761466.ece