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Just because a government is confronted with a vote of confidence
which it may lose, there is no reason for the business of
governance to come to a standstill. Ever since Mr Sitaram Kesri
dropped his ,Sunday bombshell, however, a strange mood of languor
and paralysis has descended upon the Capital. Government offices
bear a deserted look and important files are not being moved by
bureaucrats anticipating a change of government. Who will now
speak up for the oil pool deficit? Or co-ordinate an end to the
nationwide truck owners' strike? The new Exim policy has been
announced and a decision to hike the procurement price for wheat
has been taken but many other important policy matters are being
held in abeyance. Most disturbing of all is the fate of the budget
unveiled last month by the finance minister to much applause from
the public galleries. Industry is waiting anxiously for the policy
and tax changes it contained but with the Finance Bill yet to be
passed, Mr Chidambaram's promised goodies might never be delivered.
This is bad news indeed. More than for any other budget id recent
memory, the United Front's second essay had attracted broad support
from diverse sectors at home and abroad for its bold
growth-orientedness. Even the Left, which had been quick to point
out some of the budget's shortcomings as far as tax giveaways and
social expenditure were concerned, has finally come around to
seeing some of its virtues: CPM leaders now share the view that the
Finance Bill's passage should not be held ransom to the power-play
enveloping the Lok Sabha. As for Mr Kesri, he is reported to have
said he will not act against the 'national interest'. If by this
he means not coming in the way of the budget being passed, this is
a welcome development indeed.
In constitutional terms there is no ambiguity about the fact that
until Parliament decides otherwise on April 11, the present
government still has a right to rule. Even in moral terms, it is
on a stronger wicket than the 13-day ministry of the BJP, which did
not necessarily have the mandate to take policy decisions as it had
never enjoyed parliamentary sanction. But more than the UF, it is
our politicians who need collectively to realise that life must go
on. That the interests of the country are permanent even if their
own alignments and interests are transitory. Apart from the budget,
their partisanship has already claimed another important victim:
the possibility of detente between India and Pakistan. It is an
open secret that the first secretary-level talks in several years
between the two countries were thrown off course by the uncertainty
surrounding the very future of the Gujral Doctrine. Hardliners in
Pakistan looking for reasons not to respond to India's recent
gestures of cordiality were thus provided with one: why reciprocate
if there is no guarantee that India's regional posture will
continue to remain the same two weeks from now? Just like with the
budget, where a political consensus of sorts has emerged, our
political class must come together to ensure progress on the
Indo-Pak front. In Pakistan - a nation we Indians tend to
patronise as an 'immature democracy' - rival political parties were
able to repeal the Eighth Amendment of that country's Constitution,
thereby unitedly striking a blow for democracy and good governance.
Surely the political parties in our 'mature' democracy are capable
of similar acts of non-partisan good sense?
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