A time to be different

The new (old) government is back. The question is if it has learnt its most important lesson: How to join its political agenda to the agenda of government.Let me explain. It was not the Indo-US nuclear deal which won the Congress Party the elections. It was the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which provided employment to people, gave them cash to survive drought or a flood. Similarly, it was not the ecstasy of the stock market, the opening of the retail sector or the grandiose special economic zones that won the day. This government was re-elected — as its leaders reminded people in their rallies — because it gave better prices to farmers, wrote off loans and gave tribals and other poor forest dwellers rights over their land.