The slander campaign took off when I & B Minister Pramod Mahajan attacked Sonia Gandhi at an election rally saying that the if the country was so keen to have a foreigner as a Prime Minister then why not have Tony Blair, Bill Clinton or even Monica Lewinsky? Not to be out-done George Fernandes said of Sonia Gandhi "what is her contribution to the Nation? The two children she gave birth to". Mahajan called Jaylalitha, a Vishkanya " for any one who touches her does not survive". Outraged by insensitive remarks on womanhood, at least 12 woman organisations have raised strong public protests. The Congress was not far behind in getting personal. Atal Behari Vajpayee’s adopted family came under scrutiny when Ghulam Nabi Azad asked several question on the "adopted" son-in-law etc. In West Bengal, Miss Mamata Banerjee, leader of TMC, an ally of BJP whose whole political life has been so far spent on spreading canard and slander against Left parties specially CPI (M), has stooped to the lowest level of character assassination of presently the most respectful leader of the country Sri Jyoti Basu and other CPI (M) leaders. Public posters by TMC charged one CPI (M) candidate for Lok Sabha as a Pakistan Spy! Her party manifesto is a written document full of wild charges and open threats against her political opponents.

The political pundits in the national media attribute this ugly trend in Indian election to what they call "lack of issues". Is it so? The major national issues like poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, health and housing, price rise, etc., which confront the nation, are getting aggravated everyday because of wrong economic policies followed by successive Governments at the Centre. The economic reforms initiated by the Congress (I) govt. in 1991 under the pressure of World Bank and IMF have been hastened by the present BJP Govt. at a break-neck speed, with the result that the economic sovereignty of the country is facing the severest threat and the common man does not have any clue to the solution of their basic problems. While the political arena is abuzz with hate words of every description, these issues are missing.

At this juncture the economic issue and economic policies should have been focal point of all debates. But as per the explicit desire of Indian and Global Corporates and the pressure of the international finance lobby, there is virtually a consensus among congress and BJP on economic reforms and on broad parameters of economic policies which are MNC-friendly, corporate friendly but anti-poor and anti –worker and basically against the interest of common man.