Granted, this is the silly season when rationality and common sense is generally thrown to the winds, but surely voters deserve better than the continuous mud-slinging that they have been treated to thus far? The fact is that life for the ordinary citizen has become inordinately difficult. The economy is in bad shape, with agricultural production in crisis and industry in recession. Foreign policy is going nowhere, administration continues to be entangled in bureaucratic excesses and educational institutions are threatening to self-destruct. This could be the legacy of 45 years of Congress misgovernance. It could also be the result of bungling over the last six months of BJP rule. Frankly, voters are not interested in involved political analyses of what went wrong in the past. They are, however, deeply worried about whether it will ever go right in the future. And it's not just the price of onions. They want to know whether and how their politicians plan to address the current crises ingovernance. They want to know if they will get affordable vegetables and uninterrupted electricity. They want potable water in their taps and their sick to recuperate in functioning hospitals. Yes, and they also want to be assured that they don't have criminals as leaders and that their leaders don't get criminalised.

Unfortunately, the arrogance of power tends to blind politicians to their all-too-obvious fallibility. It needs only gumption to wag fingers at political opponents, but it requires a rare courage to own up mistakes and demonstrate a genuine desire to correct them. So far, neither of the two ``giants'' in the fray has demonstrated even the slightest inclination to do some badly needed stock-taking and that's the most unfortunate aspect of electioneering thus far. There are precisely five days before E-Day in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram. Can the voter expect a more informed debate and, possibly, a viable blueprint of governance? Or will that be asking for the impossible?