If the Vajpayee government was as committed to the urban poor as its sudden largesse towards slum dwellers in Bangalore, Calcutta, Delhi and Hyderabad seems to indicate, it would have done well to have demonstrated its concern earlier - or held its hand until it assumes power after being duly elected to office once again.But as things are, the hurried Rs 223 crore hike in outlay for the health and family welfare of slum dwellers, even as elections are being conducted, smacks of political expediency and a rare hypocrisy. After all, it does not need great ps-ephological insight to divine that slum dwellers constitute a significant section of the urban electorate, and many of them in cities like Bangalore, Calcutta and Hyderabad were just about to vote.The Cabinet had also given the green signal for the dearness allowance of public servants and government pensioners to be enhanced by five per cent.Opposition parties across the board are incensed over both the moves and have accused the ruling coalitionof displaying scant regard for the norms that govern decision-making during elections. While the dearness allowance hikes may be justified on the ground that they are required to be paid with the March and September salaries of the year, going by the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission, it is perhaps inevitable that this decision too would appear motivated given its timing and the high stakes involved.The government, bearing in mind its caretaker status and the fact that there is an election taking place, should have been more circumspect about arriving at these policy decisions. At the very least, it should have sought the clearance for the hikes from the Election Commission after the Cabinet had approved of them. Such a move would have gone some way in blunting the Opposition's criticism.Electoral compulsions have sometimes injected an unhealthy and unhappy amorality into public life ever since elections were announced in August. Take the behaviour of the Congress. It suddenly finds itconvenient to accuse the ruling coalition of a battery of scams. But what was it doing during the period when it was in Opposition? Surely that was the time when it should have gone hammer and tongs at the government over all those questionable sugar and wheat deals? To do so at the present juncture reveals a desperation to cash in on any issue as long as it yields a few votes.The BJP, too, has also been found wanting in the morality department. A large advertisement the party released a few days ago listed ``the free education of the girl child'' as one of the Vajpayee government's many plus points. It now transpires that the scheme has not been fully conceptualised and it had not yet been sent to the Cabinet for its approval. Therefore to claim it as Vajpayee's personal achievement was being less th-an honest since it was, at best, only a promise. It ne-eds an alert media and an alert electorate to perceive these various hypocrisies and false claims, especially at a time when the Indian people have todecide which political formation is to be the guardian of their destinies for the next Lok Sabha term.
