HVK Archives: Suing for peace
Suing for peace - The Times of India
Editorial
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5 April 1997
Title : Suing for peace
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Times of India
Date : April 5, 1997
Five days after the Congress made bold to withdraw support to the
United Front government, the party seems no closer to putting
together an alternative coalition than it was before. For all its
apparent disunity, the United Front has so far shown no particular
inclination to wither away, on which assumed contingency hinged the
success of the Congress plan. Obviously, the Congress did not
quite bargain for a swift closing of ranks by the Front
constituents - seen till now as perennially squabbling and,
therefore, vulnerable to poaching. And yet, there is nothing
really surprising in any of this. The "together we stand, together
we fall" war-cry of the UF is a product not so much of collective
loyalty as of collective wisdom. The Congress has 144 MPs to the
UF's 188, which means that either the Front as a whole, barring
maybe the Left, crosses over to give the Congress the required
majority of 273 in a House of 544, or it doesn't. If individual
Front constituents walked out of the existing arrangement knowing
the shortfall was too enormous for them even to contemplate
filling, they would be risking an uncertain present for an even
more uncertain future. If this explains the Congress's inability
to win over new friends, it explains, too, the gradual shift in the
party's stance from wanting to strike out on its own, to seeking a
coalition with all of the UF, to asking for a change in the UF
leadership.
It is to be expected, then, that the United Front would want to
extract the maximum from the Congress's discomfiture. The Front
constituents have vetoed both the coalition proposal and a change
in leadership, secure in the knowledge that they can hold out for a
deal which is more to their advantage. The Front, no doubt,
calculates that in their desperation to avoid elections,
Congressmen would capitulate long before the April 11-deadline set
by President Shanker Dayal Sharma for Mr Deve Gowda to prove his
majority. The Congress has few options, after all. If the
government collapses on the floor of the blouse, it could well be
the BJP that earns an invitation from the President, in which case
there is no saying what follows next. Should the BJP succeed in
ensuring a majority, it would be a further setback to the Congress,
while a second failed effort by the BJP may well pave the way for
fresh elections. Even in the event of the BJP choosing to abstain,
a possibility increasingly being talked about, the best that the
Congress can hope for is to score a brownie point in its fight with
Mr Deve Gowda. For that will have also put paid to its plan for a
post-April 11 deal with the ousted Front constituents. For the
Congress to pre-empt all this and at least partially redeem its
prestige, there seems no other way than for it to renegotiate the
terms of its support to the Front. It could agree, for instance, to
be part of a co-ordination committee, which could act as a forum
both for airing grievances and for formulating mutually beneficial
policies. This is an honourable way out; indeed, it is best that
the Congress, as suggested by Mr VP Singh in his role as elder
statesman and peacemaker, forgives and forgets than risks further
adventurism.
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