With the political atmosphere heating up ahead of next year's general elections, the pace of work in the government is slowing down. As government officials admit - though strictly off the record - little work on policy is getting done these days and the entire focus is on image-building for the ruling alliance. "It's just 'marketing' now; no ground-level work is happening because of the elections. There is no follow-up action on announcements that were made in the last five years," said one official. Nobody in the government now wants to take responsibility for anything for the fear of getting blamed later, he added.


