O J's Corner : Reflections

By all means try
alternatives

India is a vibrant democracy which can try all sorts of alternatives to the present UPA dispensation at government formation.

In fact, the Left parties have made it clear that they would try to cobble together a third front in Indian politics. They have always been fed up with the BJP and now they cannot stand the Congress.

With Left-dominated Governments formed in West Bengal and Kerala, they are itching for a show-down with the Congress at the Centre, thinking that they have renewed strength.

In the Lok Sabha, their strength remains the same at 60. The NDA has 185 MPs and the UPA conglomeration is supported by 217 MPs. The Left offers outside support. Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav has been supporting the UPA Government, in spite of Sonia Gandhi berating him in UP and vice-versa.

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has, of late, been showing a tendency to browbeat Congress and its leader Sonia Gandhi by flaunting new-found friends for the Communists.

The CPM has forged an understanding with Telugu Desam Party of Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh for the ensuing panchayat elections there. Paradoxically, the CPI and Congress are fielding candidates by common understanding.

Another development is that NCP leader Sharad Pawar has fallen out with the Congress in Maharashtra over support to industrialist Rahul Bajaj in the Rajya Sabha. Congress had wanted Pawar to support its candidate, but he chose to give a helping hand to Bajaj.

There are reports that Pawar is gravitating towards Shiv Sena, the situation promising to snowball into a showdown with the Congress.

The bargaining by the Left to have a good say in the UPA affairs had not been clinched to its satisfaction. The Left has been following a carrot-and-stick policy in supporting the UPA Government led by Dr Manmohan Singh. The carrot has been its outside support and the stick its fulminations as an Opposition Party.

In opposing the Congress policies, it has been sticking to out-Herod the Herod. BJP was nowhere near the Left in opposing the Congress policies and practices with regard to foreign and economic affairs.

With the possibility of   Sharad Pawar stamping out of UPA,  Mulayam Singh Yadav and TDP offering an olive branch to the Left’s efforts, Karat thinks that an alternative could be worked out.

With its 60 votes in the kitty, the Left hopes to garner support from Pawar ( nine MPs), TDP (Five MPs), Mulayam Singh Yadav (36 MPs) and many others. Lalu Prasad Yadav has 21 MPs, Mayawati  18 and the like.

But when it comes to brass-tacks, the government is formed by sheer numbers. The Congress and BJP together have more than 270 members. If the Left cannot ensure their support, how will it be possible for forming a third front government?

Don’t lose heart, comrades. Politics being the art of the possible, there will be other alternatives. Perhaps it can think of outside support from the NDA, if it works out.

Nothing can be ruled out in the present-day politics. Who thought that a so-called secularist like former Prime Minister Deve Gowda would secretly agree to his son forming a government with the support of the BJP in Karnataka? Now he has openly sided with this coalition.

What I mean to urge the third-front gazers is, by all means deal with Congress politically. Try to forge another government. At the same time, let the Congress and the BJP pursue their policies and programmes. Let the best emerge out of the manoeuvres. This is the strength of dynamic democracy of India.