Author: Editorial
Publication: Organiser
Date: September 2, 2007
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=199&page=4
The UPA is trying all tricks to avoid an election.
With the communists bent on blocking the Indo-US nuclear deal and the Congress
making the deal a matter of prestige, the options before the ruling coalition
are limited.
Dr Manmohan Singh could have avoided the confrontation.
His lack of political savvy and finesse created this turmoil. The Left is
understandably hurt that the Prime Minister chose to take to the street a
matter that could have been sorted out at the dining table. Knowing well the
Left antipathy for the increasing Indo-US strategic engagement under a government
run entirely at its mercy, Dr Singh in the normal circumstances should have
been more circumspect. Rather Singh's bloated ego or is it his overenthusiastic
espousal of the US cause, made him invite the present imbroglio ?
Whatever be the explanation for the Congress
Party's new-found arrogance, the Left is justified in its posturing. There
is no mention about the deal in the Common Minimum Programme, under which
this bizarre government was formed. There was no need for the UPA to take
forward the deal compromising national interest.
This PM botched up the whole format. Now,
some in the UPA are even suggesting that the NDA should bail out the government
so as to show the Left its place. This is a dangerous and vane suggestion.
The UPA approached the deal from the very
outset with a hidden agenda. Manmohan Singh projected it his private enterprise.
Whenever the government spokespersons let out their thoughts it only created
suspicion and more confusion. The UPA has totally mishandled the communication
front, also because of the fear of the Left. The Left perhaps hoped that the
deal would not become a reality and postponed reacting effectively on the
subject. That is why now it is being widely accused of playing the Chinese
patriot.
The Left antipathy for America is nothing
new. Its beholden love for China is equally infamous. Between these two situations
there is the political common ground of misplaced confidence, grand standing
and overreach. Dr Singh has not been behaving as the head of a precariously
held coalition government. At all levels he tried to undercut the Left.
Right from the appointment of the finance,
commerce and industry ministers to the constitution of the Planning Commission,
where he smuggled in IMF retainers, the Prime Minister pushed his own peculiar
agenda. This by a man whom the CPM till 2004 used to denounce as an IMF protege.
Of course we do not share this view. He even tried to find a nonexistent schism
in the CPM between pro-reformists led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Sitaram Yechury
etc and the hardliners under party general secretary Prakash Karat. In the
end the artificial front is in a full-blown crisis.
The most honourable course for the Left was
to withdraw support to the UPA. But the party is hugely confused; confounded
by the fear of going to the people. The pro-deal lobby is planting stories
that the CPM will meet its Waterloo in an election.
This theory is being spread interestingly
by the same people who only a week ago presented a nation-wide opinion poll
which gave Manmohan Singh a 78 per cent approval rating. And Sonia Gandhi,
according to them is equally popular. With such popularity ratings the ruling
clique should register a handsome landslide at the hustings. But they are
saying, the UPA wants to avoid an election at any cost. The parties are not
prepared, they say. And there is a solution, Manmohan Singh can continue the
rest of the term heading a minority government. This in case, when the Left
becomes so ballistic and withdraws support. There are many precedents of very
successful minority governments, they argue. This is a wishful suggestion.
Only Indira Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao
could successfully run minority governments and the political circumstances
that made it possible are not present today. Now that Manmohan Singh is adamant
on his course, he should seek a mandate from the electorate. After all, he
has no popular mandate other than that of Sonia Gandhi's. The supporting parties
are not sure of his capacity to lead them to an electoral victory. That is
why they want to delay the poll.
In a democracy any occasion to test public
mood should be welcomed. In the 1990s, we had four elections to Lok Sabha
and six governments. It did not arrest our economic growth. The talk of stability
is all bunkum. What India needs is a responsive, popular and intensely nationalist
government.
There is no merit in the argument that parties
are not prepared. What happened in 1977 and 2004 when the ruling parties were
all prepared and the opposition in utter disarray? After all, people will
make their choice however politicians time it. Seizing the popular mood is
the art of politics.
