where are the issues?

i've been looking at how many major national issues have come up for discussion on the national media, since the election schedule was made public, until now. varun gandhi and ipl, as i'd pointed out earlier, were the only two major issues until a couple of days ago. now, sanjay dutt seems to have joined them.

let's ignore the media for a moment and ask- is anyone, in the political class, looking at issues? i found jaya jaitly's blog at the ibn live site and a post that promised to look at issues. good.

I propose to look at some issues hovering before the electorate in the four crucial states that matter to anyone wanting to create the biggest post-election combine, i.e., Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The rest are in the category of smaller states that add or subtract equally and therefore are not decisive.

I propose to look at some issues. why do issues hover only before the electorate in big states? aren't we talking about national elections? is this what elections in india have turned into: purely elections? in the rest of the post, jaitly briefly touches upon issues such as the recession, 'corporate growth' oriented economic policy, iraq and saddam hussein (why?), job losses, and hurries back to discuss various political parties, alliances, personalities. where are the issues?

i've read that advani too has a blog: so is he discussing issues? the latest post is titled: The Seven Social Sins - By Mahatma Gandhi. And it lists out: The Seven Social Sins - By Mahatma Gandhi. in seven lines. before that, a post titled: The Hour Of God- By Yogi Aurobindo. the post before that promotes one of the schemes he plans to introduce: ladli laxmi yojana. he does talk about girl children and falling gender ratios but then moves on to tell you why he likes prasoon joshi (because he is prasoon joshi?)

and what does he plan to debate with manmohan singh?