 |
||
|
||
|
||
For over a week now, the country has been as if in a stupor; work
is at a standstill, decisions are on hold and the economy looks set
to take a dangerous downturn. If the paralysis is owing at least
in part to the truckers' strike, there isn't much we can do about
it for the simple reason that this deadlock must take a backseat to
the other deadlock that the government is currently caught in - one
involving its own survival. For the government to be able to pay
attention to the strike and other pressing problems, including
possibly an agitation by farmers unhappy with the new support price
for wheat, it must first solve the political crisis that is
threatening to cut short its life. Mercifully all may not be lost
yet, as Mr Sitaram Kesri's reported offer to restart negotiations
would suggest. This softening of stance was just what was needed
to break the ice between the two sides, and with a degree of
accommodation, the dialogue that follows should lead to a welcome
rapprochement. Indeed, in the initial few days after the Congress
withdrew support to the Deve Gowda government, the situation had
seemed largely salvageable precisely because both the Congress and
the United Front had shown an appreciable willingness to respond to
appeals to rise above narrow, partisan interests by peacemakers
like Mr VP Singh. That hope all but dissipated when the warring
sides inexplicably reverted to their original hardline positions.
If the reported rethink in the Congress camp is to be taken as an
indication of the prevailing mood, then, Congressmen would seem to
have joined their fellow countrymen in deciding against a second
round of wholly unnecessary and expensive elections. Assuming the
Congress's current mellow form holds, a generous reciprocal gesture
by the United Front, which essentially means not standing on false
prestige, would be all that was required to save it on the floor of
the House. So soon a return to the hustings would be a setback
difficult to overcome and not just for the Lok Sabha MPs fearing
for their careers. With a go-ahead budget waiting to be passed,
relations with our neighbours on the ascendant and policy decisions
in other fields more or less firming up, elections are about the
last thing this country needs. The economy, which was showing
healthy signs of recovery following the upbeat budget, is now on a
slide with investor confidence on the decline and market movements
ever so erratic. There are a host of other problems crying for
urgent attention, including a country-wide worsening law and order
situation, all of which will necessarily turn more and more
intractable without a stable government in place at the Centre.
Even on the Constitutional front, the exit of the Gowda government
was not auguring well with the nitpicking over Presidential options
threatening to throw up a conundrum difficult to unravel. Indeed,
things were getting only knottier with legal opinion increasingly
in conflict with political opinion. As CPP leader, Mr Kesri has
gone half way, it is for his counterpart in the United Front, Mr
Deve Gowda, now to respond positively by extending the olive
branch.
|
||
|
||
|
||