HVK Archives: Editorial - The stability card
Editorial - The stability card - The Statesman
Editorial
()
May 31st 1996
Title : The stability card
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Statesman
Date : 31st May, 1996
A New season of insincerity is dawning on politics.
Practitiollers of the art rarely say what they mean, they have
now taken to meaning the opposite of what they say. The Congress
party, through its spokesman, Mr V. N. Gadgil, says that it will
not interfere in the formation of the United Front Ministry, it
has every intention of doing exactly the opposite. Mr Deve Gowda
says everyone is cooperating and he will have no difficulty in
forming the Ministry, the fact is that there is no agreement on
names for the various departments; this is not to say that there
are not many hopefuls for each Ministry. Mulayam Singh Yadav
fancies himself as Home Minister; Mr Narasimha Rao is understood
to have conveyed to Mr DeveGowda, with every disclaimer of
wanting to interfere, that the Prime Minister-to-be should
remember - Mulayam Singh is a red rag to the BJP bull and tli(@
functioning of Parliament will be difficult if he is appointed.
Mr P. Chidambaram thinks he should be the Finance Minister; the
CPI(M) point out that this will make a nonsense of their
opposition to Congress policies. The Congress is coy about the
suggestion but it will be a surprise if Mr Rao remembers only
Chidambaram's work as Commerce Minister and overlooks his
recent
rebellion. There is now talk of inducting I. G. Patel. No one
has yet thought up the objection that this is a close parallel to
Narasimha Rao inducting Dr Manrnohan Singh.
The Congress say that their support to the United Front is
unconditional; there are three very meaningful conditions which
will reduce Mr Deve Gowda to Rajiv Gandhi's Chandrashekar. A
senior Janata Dal leader is reported to feel that it will take
many weeks to knock a Ministry together and many weeks they
have
not got. If the President had not imposed a time-limit on Mr
Vajpayee he would not have felt obliged to impose a similar one
on Mr Deve Gowda. It bears recall that a time-limit to prove a
majority is unknown to the Constitution, and not any more
familiar to Parliamentary practice. It is advocated by those who
profess concern for the need to avoid floor-crossings and is
peculiar to the Indian context. It is not possible to legislate
for integrity and good conduct. If the matter were left to the
sovereign will of Parliament the country would have been spared
the near certainty of a dissolution and fresh elections before
too long. Mr L. K. Advani has already warned his party to be
ready for a snap poll and Mr Vajpayee has endorsed the warning as
head of the BJP Parliamentary party. They are right.
The outlook for the United Front could improve dramatically if Mr
Deve Gowda can summon up the courage to face down the
Congress
and dare them to withdraw support. It is not entirely fair to
him to suggest that he does not have what it takes, Mr Deve
Gowda's power-hungry colleagues will not, in any event, allow him
to do so for fear the Congress think it is a bluff and call it.
And so the farce goes on. One thing is quite clear, Mr Narasimha
Rao has lost the stability card. In any future contest, and one
may be quite close, the card is sitting in the pocket of the BJP.
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