now the BJP and Congress want to play games

I usually try to follow the Indian Economy thread of BR to catch up on my economic news and maybe get some deeper insight into some of the economic events I hear around me. The last few days have seen a few posts talking about the Congress pressing ahead with reforms now that they have shaken off their boyfriend, the Left, and some expressing hope that the BJP will support them because they had always asked for reforms in the first place, and some expressing their concern that since there was such bitter blood created between the two in the aftermath of the confidence vote, the BJP will play hardball.

There is plenty of news about the government and opposition "may, might, could" do in the near future.

Being an aam aadmi, of course I don't know whats going on, but hopefully we will know the status of things in the near future. already, some key happenings have occured, but not too circulated in the generic Indian media. The first is that the government has finally ended the monopoly of the SBI in managing the Employee Provident Fund Organization. There are crores and crores of rupees of all big and small, high and low government employees being managed by SBI. Now the Government has invited three private companies to manage part of the pot too.

Another newsitem from the Hindu Business Line says that Disinvestment process may gain speed. This includes offloading stakes in NHPC and Damodar Valley Corporation. Among other things is the plan to open up the insurance sector to 49% from the current 26%.

While some report that the BJP may "test" the government on reforms, others say that BJP ready to support economic reforms.

You'd think that maybe the dust would settle down after the horse fair would get over, but theres always surprises around the corner in India. The government, my feeling tells me, will push reforms, but maybe back down from the major reforms as usual because of the approaching elections.

Here is what I am trying to an answer to - Why does it always have to be that the most important economic reforms are also 'apparently' anti-vote banks? Why are the votebanks of Indian democracy always disadvantaged? And will some of these groups ever figure out what their netas are actually upto?