You could say that Modi has abetted mass murder while Dikshit is like your favourite aunt. But when Modi has won a handsome re-election and Dikshit is getting ready to face the voter again, the relevant point is that, in state after state, chief ministers are seeking to win on the basis of performance. It is of course true that the old issues of caste and community are as important as they have always been (think Uttar Pradesh); but when Orissa claims that it has achieved for the first time a sustained rate of GDP growth that is better than the national average, perhaps Naveen Patnaik deserves a third term "" even if his biggest projects are still mired in problems. Nitish Kumar may not have reached the stage when people are prepared to invest in Bihar, but the anecdotal evidence suggests that people are not afraid of consuming any more "" the sales of cars from Patna car dealerships are said to have skyrocketed because carjacking is not the menace it used to be! In Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje too has made a difference to the state's roads (which used to be terrible) and in some places to power supply. Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana is certainly an improvement on his predecessor. And in Marxist-ruled West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had everyone excited until things went wrong at Nandigram. The thought crops up: how much of this is due to the example set by Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh?
In comparison, any result-oriented minister in New Delhi is frustrated about how little he is able to do, and most feel no pressure to perform. Over the past four years, we have seen no improvement in the power situation, and none in education, while agriculture is crisis-ridden. Neither Arjun Singh nor Sharad Pawar nor Sushil Kumar Shinde has improved his standing with the public over the past four years. As for the anti-poverty plank, the big spending initiatives have not reached their target in many cases, as Rahul Gandhi is discovering. Even P Chidambaram must wonder about his legacy, with both the deficit and inflation climbing. And Kamal Nath has an $80 billion trade deficit to show for his labours. The lucky few are the ministers with portfolios that have coherent organisations and paying customers: civil aviation, the railways, science and technology. And there is no shortage of no-win ministries: home, panchayati raj...
Oh, to be a chief minister instead! Which is why it is frustrating when you see unreconstructed, old-school politicians like Deve Gowda still with a hold on people's imagination in Karnataka, when young leaders like Raj Thackeray can think of nothing better than divisive xenophobia in Maharashtra, and when chief ministers like Kerala's VS Achuthanandan do so little with their mandate.