HVK Archives: Government, at Last (in Uttar Pradesh)
Government, at Last (in Uttar Pradesh) - The Times of India
Editorial
()
21 March 1997
Title : Government, at Last
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Times of India
Date : March 21, 1997
A year and a half after the BJP withdrew support to the then BSP
government, causing Uttar Pradesh to come under President's rule,
the two parties have reunited to restore elected governance in the
state. The tumultuous nature of the earlier BSP-BJP coalition
notwithstanding, this must be seen as a welcome development, if
only because it breaks the constitutional deadlock which was
inexorably leading the state towards an election that was
avoidable, costly and more than likely once again to turn in a
fractured verdict. The government has come about just when all
looked lost; no political party had seemed willing to place the
state above self-interest, though that might have meant reckoning
with an extended spell of lawlessness. The reversal of this trend
augurs well not just for UP but also for the future of coalition
politics in this country. After all, if UP can go without a
popular government for the absurd reason that political parties
refused to give it a government, so too can other states and so too
can the Centre. Indeed, should such a contingency arise at the
Centre, it could throw up an impasse with serious consequences for
the country. A democratic regime is also by definition more
responsive, which is why beyond a point Central rule must
inevitably prove counter-productive. What appears to have clinched
the issue for the BSP and the BJP is the innovative power-sharing
formula they have worked out, a formula whereby each would take
turns at heading the government. This is a vital breakthrough in
that the two parties were at loggerheads mainly over who gets to
govern, with neither the BSP's Ms Mayawati nor the BJP's Mr Kalyan
Singh ready to yield ground to the other.
Power by rotation is already in practice in some West European
countries, though it is for the first time that it is to be tested
here. Indeed, this could be a valuable contribution to coalition
politics in India, especially considering the tenuous nature of
party tie-ups in the country - the greed for the top job is what
often causes political pacts to collapse. In this particular case
though, experience suggests that the two partners have a rather
uneasy time ahead. In her earlier stint as chief minister, Ms
Mayawati showed a marked reluctance to accommodate the BJP's
interests. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Harijan Act and other
pro-Dalit measures she had introduced were such as not only to
antagonise the upper castes, the backbone of the BJP's support
base, but also to deepen the caste cleavages within its ranks.
Were that to happen again, the OBCs could gravitate towards Mr
Mulayam Singh Yadav. This, given additionally a consolidation in
Mr Yadav's Muslim base, could upset all calculations about
immobilising him through a spate of court cases. It remains to be
seen also whether Ms Mayawati will willingly relinquish her post
when the time comes. And yet, whatever the ultimate outcome of
this experiment, for the moment at least the BJP has scored over
its secular rivals in the United Front, managing not only to
attract more and more allies but also getting its act together in
the politically crucial state of UP. This is in contrast to the
inactivity that has come to mark the functioning of the secular
group. If the UF finds itself having to conduct a daily battle
with its left allies, who seem determined to negate whatever
goodwill that may have accrued to the government because of a good
budget, the Congress has all but self-destructed, the proverbial
last nail in the coffin being the split in its UP unit.
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