EGS On Their Face

In our strange land, the government exhausts its energy and resources trying to manufacture or manipulate arguments to promote decisions the cabinet itself is divided on. The quota issue is a supreme example of monumental mishandling of a policy Parliament had endorsed and the Congress fully backed. As a result, the prime minister and some of his ministers tied themselves up in a series of contradictions. Even more alarming: the government leaked these contradictions to journalists.

And when you have a clear policy victory, one notices a deafening silence, even embarrassment. Reports from around the country confirm that the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) is an unqualified success with even BJP-ruled states demanding that more districts be included. The Congress president, bizarrely, is forced to urge party workers to lay claim to EGS before it is hijacked by the Opposition. Yet, the government, despite its vast infrastructure and reach to spread the good news, is curiously silent. Why? Could it be that there are some elements in the government, the same who were opposed to the scheme, who would prefer this sole UPA success to remain concealed?