NEW DELHI: Parliamentary Affairs Minister

has admitted that there is a disconnect between urban India and the political class and said 'polity bashing' had becoming fashionable in towns and cities.

KamalNath“There is a disconnect between people in urban areas and their politicians. This is happening because people don’t understand how governments work, how politicians work. A politician is expected to be a magician who delivers everything.So people are just looking at a politician as a magician saying that I voted for you and you bloody well deliver,” Nath told ET in an exclusive interaction on Thursday evening, a day before the Congress Chintan Shivir began in Jaipur.A spate of corruption scandals and recent protests against the Delhi gangrape seem to have turned the tide against Congress in large towns and cities which had voted for UPA in large numbers in the 2009 elections. The inability of the government to handle the spontaneous protests against the horrific rape is also expected to feature in the Congress’s brain-storming session.The minister, who has emerged as the government’s chief political manager after Pranab Mukherjee’s departure to Rashtrapati Bhawan, played down the importance of the urban vote and said it was not large enough to have a substantial impact on the result of the next general elections scheduled for 2014. “India is not Delhi or Mumbai or Kolkata. Let’s not think that if we’ve lost urban India, we’ve lost the country. I don’t buy this,” he said.At the same time, he expressed the hope that the Congress will continue to hold on to its seats in urban India, saying that the voter would "appreciate" that the Congress-led UPA's governance is better. "After all, elections are a relative thing. You don't vote for the best but you vote for what is available," he said. Nath disputed the contention that last month's protest against the Delhi gang-rape which grabbed headlines worldwide were aimed at Congress."They were not protesting against the Congress party. They told everyone to get lost. They were protesting the failure of polity to deal with it and rightly so," says Nath.The protests had demonstrated the growing power of social media to channelise public anger and mobilise large crowds. Nath said the government is putting in place a strategy to deal with social media but said its importance should not be overestimated. "Social media is nascent in a countrywide context. In urban India, it has significance but not somuch in rural India. We aren't underestimating it. But you must alsoremember that these are things that are not causing a great impact even in the western democracies. President Obama doesn't win or lose on Twitter or Facebook," he said.The minister added that polity bashing had become a trend in urban areas. "Democracy is not a buffet table that you pick what you want. This is an urban phenomenon," he said.Nath, who except for a short period has been a member of the Lok Sabha since 1980, assumed the parliamentary affairs portfolio during the last cabinet reshuffle in October 2012.He was largely responsible for mustering the numbers for the minority government of Manmohan Singh during the vote on allowing FDI in retail in the last session of Parliament, as well as for ensuring that the Banking Bill and the Companies Bill were passed.He is said to enjoy good relations with parties across the political spectrum but he ruled out any immediate plans of inducting new allies such as the Samajwadi Party or the Bahujan Samaj Party in the government. "Why should we? Neither have they shown any interest to be part of the government, nor are we interested," said the minister.He said the government would take it 'session by session' and 'vote by vote' in Parliament, where it is in a numerical minority after the exit of the Trinamool Congress from the UPA. He was hopeful that the government would last its full term and said around the world, polity was fragmented. "It's true for even the US where the President had to cut short his New Year holiday and go back to convince the Congress. So I don't see why in India it is seen as if the government is going to collapse. In a coalition, you try to have the widest possible consensus. Every political party wants what is best for India and they just have a different approach to it." he said.The government would seek Parliament's approval for amending rape laws in the Budget session.