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P Chidambaram may have unconsciously derived it from former BBC
correspondent in Delhi, Mark Tully's No Full Stops in India. Even
as his government was bowing out, the hero of this year's Budget
miracle waxed eloquently philosophical in the Parliament debate,
"Life is not one of full stops, but of commas". His leader and
Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who claimed to have never aspired
for power, ended on the hope that he would "come back". Nitish
Kumar, arch enemy of Bihar overlord Laloo Prasad Yadav, sounded a
prophetic note, "Who knows how many small-time Prime Ministers
would occupy that seat for brief spells in the months to come." His
party being an ally of the BJP he would of course like to see
another "Bihari" to adorn the Prime Minister's seat in the Lok
Sabha. "But it will be Atal Behari." Only,
Congressmen who precipitated the fall of the Deve Gowda government
did not talk of the comeback plan. For them, the debate was a
formality and the plans were being chalked out outside. With the
departure of yet another government, theories and talks have veered
to the possible arrivals. The 11th Lok Sabha showed signs of the
coming of age of parliamentary democracy in India. Before it took
up the debate on the confidence motion, members cutting across
party lines agreed to pass Chidambaram's Budget at a special
session latter this month. A great step forward from the times
which once prompted Arthur Pollard to comment that the "Hindu and
the Hottentot could not take to parliamentary ways due to their
congenital political incapacity." And, even as the government was
falling, members and their mentors were charting out the possible
scenarios, not just for the next elections, but more importantly,
for the future of the country's polity.
While the politicians played their games, the people were making
their choices too. Responding to an opinion poll in six major
cities of the country they gave their verdicts - clear on some
counts but, at the same time, sending confusing signals about
others. (The poll was conducted for The Telegraph by MODE on April
9 and 10 among 1200 male and female voters, 200 each in Calcutta,
Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.) While politicians
were trying all means, fair and foul, to avoid facing their
electorate a second time in a year, the people seem to be braver
than their leaders. Forty five per cent thought elections should be
held again. While 81 per cent favoured a one-party rule at the
Centre, they also gave high marks to Deve Gowda, implying that they
have no problems with coalition governments at the Centre.
Trends in the country's politics over the past decade and a half
show significant changes. Regional parties now want to be known as
federalists; national parties like the BJP, Congress, the
Communists and the Janata Dal have woken up to the virtues and
strategic importance of regional parties. Gone are the heydays of
narrow regionalism when Opposition parties would fume at the
Congress in their series of conclaves. Politicians and analysts
were alarmed when an anti-Delhi Biju Patnaik threatened that Orissa
might be pushed to separatist ways because of the Centre's neglect.
The Centre-state confrontations were carried to ridiculous levels
during the floods in Assam in September, 1988. Incensed by the
then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's delayed visit to the flood
affected areas, student leader-turned-chief minister Prafulla Kumar
Mahanta refused to go to Dibrugarh to receive Rajiv Gandhi when he
finally went to the state.
Nearly 10 years after that, India's political map offers curious
reading. Two national parties rule only three big states - the BJP
in Rajasthan and the Congress in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh - and
two smaller states - the Congress in Himachal Pradesh and the BJP
in Delhi. Though the Congress is in power in the north-eastern
states of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur, elsewhere in
the country, it is the rule of either regional parties or
coalitions. The fall of the Deve Gowda government has brought
India at the crossroads once again, with politicians and people
faced with fresh scenarios for the future.
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