There is no person to play the role of Jai Prakash Narayan. It sounds like a cock and bull story that overnight a new party will emerge such as the India Against Corruption, and that it will be elected by people to gain absolute majority so that Indians will have a clean government at the centre. But many after Ramdev’s hobnobbing with RSS and Kiran Bedi’s support for BJP had started believing that people want a change of Congress-led UPA and it should be replaced comfortably by BJP led NDA.

A change is really required. But after the life imprisonment of Dr. Maya Kodnani in the Narodia case, and no easing of communalism associated with the BJP, at least in one state. In an article in Counterview, a senior social activist Fr. Cedric Prakash opined that communalism and corruption go together in Gujarat. A Gujarat activist Rajesh Solanki of the Dalit Hak Rakshak Manch (DHRM) had written a letter to KG Balakrishnan, Chairman, National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi, expressing serious concern over high acquittal rate i.e., 96 % in the cases under the SC and ST Preventional of Atrocities Act , 1989, against the accused who committed offenses against tribals.

In Guwahati one teenager was targeted for gang molestation, and the whole nation rose to condemn it. Here at the instigation of one MLA, meaning one in power, gang rape was targeted over a whole locality- Narodia. Nothing can be more heinous than this crime. Life imprisonment seems light punishment  for rioters in power.

Now, the less you speak of Congress-led UPA is better. Probably that is why the Prime Minister of that party maintains silence which in no way can be called golden. The UPA government is submerged fully in the mire of corruption. It is still not going to be branded communal because of its pseudo secular image.

You may call majority of the Congress leaders corrupt, immoral, and unethical without thinking twice of  the consequences, because they are, in reality. The latest is the coalgate allocation scam in which the Prime Minister himself is not yet freed of his alleged guilty role. 17 billion ton of coal reserves worth Rs. 51 lakh crore were given to 142  private companies for free by the government and the Congress is alleged to have gained financially in the deal. Again as the Supreme Court has shown in the 2G scam, all these allocations are to be revoked and all blocks opened for open bidding. Even remotely, the top brass of Congress and UPA do not look innocent.  

But the third option is not yet there.The Third Front is a myth. It could have emerged during the Presidential elections. It did not. It could emerge when the PM ouster campaign started. But it would not emerge really. The reason is not difficult to find. There are so many opportunists and corrupted politicians even outside UPA and NDA that the Third Front formation seems next to impossible in spite of all the earnest efforts of Left Parties.

This is nothing but wish fulfillment with leaders such as Mulayam Singh, Jaya Lalitha, and Sharad Yadav. Many allies in the NDA deviated from the coalition during the Presidential polls and the Congress President candidate won, frustrating all hopes of a new alignment around the NDA candidate P. Sangma. There was some hope of emergence of a non-BJP and non-Congress third alternative with Anna Hazare and Ramdev jointly sharing a campaign against corruption. But without the support of either of the major party, BJP or Congress, both having taints of communalism and corruption respectively, it is simply impossible to see such a new political scenario which is healthy for the progress of the nation.

Now the million dollar question is - Which government would you like to support? The question may be more tough if you are asked at this moment: Do you like a corrupt government or a communal government? But the third  question seems much easier than both the earlier ones: How much do you despise a corrupt and communal government?. Now the choice is yours.