India needs an election soon. And it needs someone - it almost doesn't matter who - to be a clear winner. Properly contested and fairly counted elections sort things out; they have a winner and a loser. And they allow someone to govern.
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A poll now would clear the air of partisan posturing and the paralysis of the present undeclared election campaign. With an election not due until possibly May, the main parties are spending their time hectoring each other and testing campaign slogans instead of governing.
The government tries to keep its fragile and fractious coalition together, while the main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, does all in its considerable power to discredit it.
As India's economy slips further into the mire, dragging its international standing with it, the message to the world is that India is not open for business.
As the BJP leadership regards obstruction as synonymous with opposition it thwarts all but the most populist of government initiatives, simply to further hobble an already unstable administration.
That the present government has been poor is not seriously questioned. Since its 2009 term began, the Congress-led coalition has been exposed by massive corruption scandals, its budget deficits have skyrocketed because of a devotion to wasteful vote-building subsidies on petrol and fertiliser, and it has failed to pass its promised reforms to labour laws and schools.
But that doesn't mean that everything it is trying to do is wrong, or in the worst interests of the country.
Reforms that nobody seriously contests - introducing a GST, privatising bloated state-owned enterprises, easing obstructive business regulation, and speeding up infrastructure projects - are stalled because of the political impasse. The last session of parliament passed three major bills, an achievement which pales when mentioned with the 116 bills (and growing) currently pending.
Pakistan, rarely seen as a paragon of democratic politics, has shown the opportunity afforded by a decisive election win.
May's election in Pakistan gave Nawaz Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) a strong mandate to govern, and the numbers in the parliament to do it.
Mr Sharif is not beholden to a fractious coalition, or the dilutive effect of being forced to win agreements at every turn.
India needs similarly to clear the decks.
The rupee is in freefall, at one point down 20 per cent this year, largely because international investors are fleeing the country.
They are fleeing because of the uncertainty of India's stalemate. And certainty is something business requires. It needs to know which policies a government intends to pursue, and to be confident that the government is capable of pursuing them.
Anti-incumbency runs strong in India. The BJP, by virtue of being out of power for 10 years, is in the ascendancy.
It will choose Narendra Modi as its candidate for prime minister, a move that will, in hindsight, prove to be either brilliant or catastrophic.
The Gujarat Chief Minister is polarising - those who support him adore him, those who oppose revile him.
His perceived role in the Hindu-Muslim violence in Godhra a decade ago makes him a divisive figure.
Mr Modi wins votes, but minority and secular regional parties do not trust him, and having him in charge will make the BJP's job of building a coalition, if it needs one to govern, much more difficult.
On the government side, light and heat continues to surround Congress's heir apparent, Rahul Gandhi, though there seems to be little fire. Congress has to decide soon whether Mr Gandhi is willing to genuinely take control - at the moment he busies himself in internecine administration - and is capable of leading the party.
Then, India must decide.
