HVK Archives: The Front is exposed
The Front is exposed - The Indian Express
Editorial
()
March 17, 1998
Title: The Front is exposed
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 17, 1998
After losing power, UF may lose even political leverage
Outside support is something that vitally affects the United
Front, both as a giver and a taker. It remained in power only as
long as it received such support from a reluctant Congress. Its
survival for long as a single political entity can hardly be
envisaged without its agreeing to extend backing of a like kind
to either of the other two blocs. An immediate result of the hung
Parliament produced by the polls was indeed hung Front. The
hird Front', as its the oreticians have Continued to project,
such combines, proved a Trishanku Front. Its constituents took
only a few days to divide themselves into camp-followers of the
two main contenders for power. The Telugu Desam Party, under UF
convener Chandrababu Naidu, has not evaded the issue by talking
of "equidistance" from the Congress and the BJP; the Left is
right to argue that the TDP abstention on the vote of confidence
in the probable Atal Behari Vajpayee government would amount to
support for it.
There is little doubt that, despite CPI(M) Politburo member
Sitaram Yechury enjoining a vote of equal hostility to the 'hand'
and the saffron, the rest of the Front, including CPI(M)'s own
Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu, are of as clearly a pro-
Congress resolve as Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav, even
if that means legitimisation of dynastic politics in our
democratic polity. In the popular perception, the UF was
overeager to support a Congress government even when the once-
preeminent party had reconciled itself to spending some time in
the Opposition. The balance of forces, which bestowed no undue
advantage on either of the bigger formations, should have been a
blessing in disguise for the UF. It could have even imparted the
Front a clout but only if it had remained united. Sitaram Kesri,
Sharad Pawar, and others may have talked of jettisoning the Jain
Commission report and making up with the DMK and the TMC and of
forging a secular Front with a place of pride for Jyoti Basu, but
S.S. Ahluwalia may have spoken more authentically for the new
Congress leadership in ruling out rapport with such enemies of
Rajivism lie Front, as constituted now, can hardly be in a hurry
to find its receding relevance in an anti-BJP phalanx. It does
not occur to the UF constituents that there is a large section of
voters who would like the Front to play its rightful role as an
Opposition group, rather than support either the Congress or the
BJP.
There is a major irony in the present scenario that merits note.
The fractured electoral mandate has bestowed ludicrously
disproportionate importance on several bit players, including
parties with single-digit parliamentary strength. It has,
however, reduced to ridiculous proportions the influence of the
Front, whose constituents were in power in a large number of
states. Today a oneman show like the Janata Party can evoke
greater awe than the disunited Front. The UF has only itself to
blame for its present predicament.
Back
Top
|
