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A part from the ambition of the octogenarian Congress chief and the
suicidal adventurism of H. D. Deve Gowda, if any single factor is
responsible for the present political crisis, it is the
machinations of the Left in the name of ideology. If today the
United Front stands virtually divided with the Tamil Maanila
Congress cut up about the treatment meted out to its leader G. K.
Moopanar, the accusing finger should squarely be pointed at the
Left. Though the Left, particularly the CPI(M), supposedly lays
great store by its anti-BJPism, it is the Congress that it dreads
most. In the past, it had no compunction whatsoever to collaborate
indirectly with the BJP in 1989 and the Janata Party, of which the
Jana Sangh was a constituent, in 1977. As far as the CPI is
concerned, ideology never prevented it from even sharing power with
the Congress in Kerala in the seventies and joining hands with the
BJP's precursor under the banner of the Samyukta Vidayak Dal in the
sixties. The CPI(M)'s paranoia about the Congress is nothing
surprising as the threat to its supremacy in its strongholds of
West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura comes from the Congress, and not
the BJP.
In retrospect, it is not for any ideological reason that the CPI(M)
preferred to remain outside the Deve Gowda Ministry while the CPI
made bold to share the spoils of office. The Marxist leadership
did not want any whittling down of its anti-Congress stance by
joining a government that survived solely on the support of the
Congress. It would have been quite an embarrassment for the
leadership to face its rank and file who had always been
indoctrinated against the Congress. Seen against this backdrop it
is indeed doubtful whether the Left seriously wanted the
UF-Congress experiment to succeed, though necessity forced it to
acquiesce in it.
In fact, it is pertinent that the first time the Congress reacted
against the UF was when Indrajit Gupta made that provocative
statement that it had no other option but to support the UF
Government. Little did the Communist veteran realise then that all
that was required to prick the UF balloon was a missive from the
Congress president. Even after the Congress withdrew its support
to the Deve Gowda Government, the attempt of the Left was not so
much to bring about a rapprochement as to worsen the Congress-UF
relationship. Knowing full well that it was next to impossible for
the Congress to support any government led by Deve Gowda, it sought
to make Gowda's leadership non-negotiable. But when realisation
dawned on the UF-leaders that sticking to Gowda was tantamount to
welcoming an immediate election and the Left bluff was called, it
tried to make an issue of the Congress first withdrawing its letter
to the President staking its claim to form a government before the
UF considered any other option. When the Congress found a way out
of the jam and the Left lost its face, it hit upon the idea of
pitting one UF constituent against another. The TMC's decision
shows that the CPI(M) stratagem has succeeded to some extent as it
will also cut at the very roots of the UF's dream budget. What
helped the Left in all this is the smug belief that in any election
its stock will remain more or less the same.
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