ON ELECTION-EVE I In Defence of the Third Alternative Javeed Alam The central question in Indian politics today cannot be one only of stability. Abstracted of its contextual links, stability, quite like merit, becomes a recipe for reactionary backsliding, to evade questions of urgent change. The question that ought rather to be asked is: how does one channel the churning and restlessness in society in a way that provides for a governance which ensures some prescription for equity and a way out of the disastrous surrender to the dictates of the IMF-World Bank.