Corrosion within UPA is challenge for govt: Yogendra Yadav

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has accused the Opposition of trying to force mid-term polls.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Yogendra Yadav, Political Analyst said, measured statements by PM reflect his cautiousness. According to him, the real risk right now is not that of legislative insecurity or the government collapsing or mid-term elections, the real challenge right now is the corrosion from within. Political battle over 2G: PM on the offensive Below is the edited transcript of his interview with CNBC-TV18's Udayan Mukherjee and Mitali Mukherjee. Also watch the accompanying videos. Q: The Prime Minister made a statement yesterday saying that it is the Opposition which is trying to push for early polls, there is no instability as such or discord between the governments. Do you see any risk at all to the stability of the top faces in the government now? A: It is one of the few political statements coming from the Prime Minister. It only goes on to show why Prime Minister may have been advised not to make too many political statements because for prime minister to bring in larger conspiracy to destabilise the government does not quite create a very good impression. Yes, there is some degree of risk, the risk maybe over stated by the media. It is not that the people in the government are in a rush to change the top ministers. But if things go out of hand, for example, something in the Supreme Court goes out of hand or if the JPC takes harsh a stand than it currently seems to be perusing then things could get tougher for Chidambaram. I think more than the spate, which is being covered, the real question here is the manner in which the government is responding to this. The manner in which the Prime Minister has to distance himself from his own government is somewhat surprising. This does not send very good signals. Q: What would you say is the probability of some kind of mid-term elections? A: That is very low. Mid-term elections can come from two different sources. One, legislative instability that the government loses majority on the floor of the house. Given the find of anti defection law that you have in place, given the numbers UPA has in parliament, and that is very-very unlikely. The second source of mid-term polls can be the government itself advancing the polls and going for it. That could have been a possibility, if the government thought it was doing well. Advancing of polls is done only by governments, which are very confident, which think that they would do well or think that they would damage control, if they do it earlier. That also seems highly unlikely. So, I think the real risk or real difficulty or the real situation right now is not that of legislative insecurity or the government collapsing or mid-term elections, the real challenge right now is the corrosion from within, its inability to govern, its inability to present a face which looks like providing some legitimacy to those who govern. This was the time when the government was expected to recover from the Anna Hazare disaster and the timing of this letter couldn