If you were looking for a single signal of a policy logjam then expectations on the economic situation are probably your best bet. When 56 per cent of the respondents believe that the economic situation will at best remain the same and only 24 per cent expect improvement, it is essentially an affirmation that big tag reforms are on the back burner. Sure the BSE Sensex is threatening to breach the 8,000 mark and projections put India's GDP growth this year yet again around the 7 per cent mark. But then-as they would say on Dalal Street-the potential of India being the second fastest growing economy has been discounted. After all, this is no ordinary team in place. With Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram along with Montek Singh Ahluwalia batting in the Government for reforms the expectations are of big reforms. Labour reforms, restructuring of the power sector, higher spend on infrastructure or creating a high performance agricultural sector are all part of the expectation package.

And it isn't that the need for reforms hasn't been stated emphatically. Every six months, voters have listed unemployment as the No. 1 concern for the past four years. If in an era of historically low inflation, the second biggest concern is price rise then the message simply is one of affordability. Creation of fewer jobs and rising unemployment (at last count there were over 40 million registered unemployed in the country) have led to a huge resistance to privatisation or disinvestment. But there is a genuine fear that privatisation or disinvestment will swallow the few existing jobs. And the answer to whether government should sell its stake in profit-making PSUs is an emphatic no by over 41 per cent.

Very simply there is something seriously wrong in the laws that enable (or disable) employment creation. But government after government has failed to bite the bullet. Sure there is job growth in the services sector and those already employed are enjoying the fruits of corporate performance. But the fact is, unless more jobs are created in the tertiary and manufacturing sector, the fruits of whatever reforms that we see will be seen directed towards a fortunate few. It is thus not surprising that 52 per cent-over half the voting population-believes that reforms benefit the rich the most and only 11 per cent said that the poor gain at all. And forget about urban bias or of responses from Bimaru states. The fact is 69 per cent of thriving Delhi and 65 per cent of people in prosperous Punjab believe that the rich gain the most. Coalitions-blamed by 16 per cent for slowdown in reforms-have a tendency to redefine positions and isms. This is why regime after regime since the mid-'90s has opted for the comfort of status quoism. It is a pleasant perch but those opting for it would do well to remember that "status quo", former US President Ronald Reagan once said, "is Latin for the mess we are in".

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