HVK Archives: Future front
Future front - The Times of India
Editorial
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15 April 1997
Title : Future front
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Times of India
Date : April 15, 1997
With both its principal rivals caught in the throes of a crisis that is
showing no signs of giving over, the moment is ripe for the BJP to
strike. And struck it has by coming up with the idea of a front of its
own. This is a shrewd move aimed at attracting the growing band of
fence-sitters in the Congress and the United Front. Should it come
about, the National Democratic Front could be a plausible alternative
both for Congressmen fearing for their future in an organisation whose
eventual marginalisation looks certain, and for constituents of the
Front who have to fight the Congress on their home ground. More so, in
the absence of a guarantee that a fresh deal between the UF and the
Congress will not break up for the same reasons as before. Indeed, as
matters stand, even the bare outlines of such a deal are not visible,
owing mainly to the many questions that remain unanswered in both camps,
starting with the confusion over the existing leadership. The United
Front might browbeat Mr Deve Gowda into giving up his prime-ministerial
claims, but it has no ready replacement for him. The regional lobby, or
the Regional Front (RF) as it styles itself, will not have Mr IK Gujral.
Nor will it agree to Mr GK Moopanar because one of the factions, the
DMK, is wary of his ambitions and his Congress roots. The UF has also
to make up its mind about doing business with Mr Sitaram Kesri, the man
behind its current troubles. This is besides the fact that UF
constituents like the AGP and TDP cannot be part of a coalition
arrangement which includes the Congress.
Against this backdrop, the BJP alternative must seem worth exploring to
those left frustrated by the unreliable twists and turns in the
Congress-UF relationship. The RF for one seems no longer as averse to
cohabiting with the BJP as it was in June 1996 when it resisted
attractive offers from it to stay as part of the UF. Already the DMK is
under increasing pressure from its ranks not to foreclose the BJP option
as that would almost certainly drive Ms Jayalalitha into the BJP's
waiting arms - a contingency with serious implications for the already
twice- dismissed DMK regime in Tamil Nadu. The TDP and the AGP both
have an adversarial relationship with the Congress which dictates that
they may take but not offer support to it. To an extent at least it was
this ground-level contradiction between these parties which prompted the
Congress to topple the Deve Gowda government. Of the southern lot, the
TMC alone would appear to have unreservedly thrown in its lot with the
Congress, though as part of the RF it might not find it prudent to
strike out on its own. The RF, with its 58 MPs, is, then, in a position
to market itself as a package to the best bidder, which role could be
fulfilled by the BJP which has a shortfall of only 70. The RF
constituents have nevertheless still to reckon with crucial issues like
regional autonomy, minority votes, opposition to Hindi etc, which are
central to their existence but outside the BJP's scheme of things. The
BJP knows this and knows too that it might have to bide its time - till
the RF has exhausted itself in a new equation with the Congress. That is
when the NDF could come into play.
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