HVK Archives: United Farce
United Farce - Mid day
P M Kamath
()
5 June 1996
Title : United Farce
Author : P M Kamath
Publication : Mid day
Date : June 5, 1996
The hastily-cobbled-together United Front isneither
united nor a body capable of governance, says P M Kamath.
AFTER nearly 30 years of experimentation with United
Front (UF) governments in states like Uttar Pradesh
Haryana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal
after the fourth general elections in 1967, now it's
the Cmtre's turn.
These experiments had three common features. In all the
states the Congress was the single largest party but
without a simple majority in the Assembly.
Second, the disparate parties which came together to form
the UF, like the Jan Sangh on the right, the communists
on the left and socialists in the middle, were bound with
the cement of 'anti-Congressism'.
Third,after a few months the Congress assumed power with
the help of some splinter groups from the fronts.
The unique conifibution of the UF experimentation in
these states was instability.
With the installation of a UF government at the Centre
consisting of the National Front (NF), Left Front (LF)
and regional parties, with a total strength of 174 and
with the support of 136 Congress MPs from outside,
political instability has once again moved to centre
stage in Indian politics.
As in the 1960s, the 13 mutually antagonistic parties
have in common only their antipathy towards the Bharatiya
Janata Pafty (BJP).
The UF government at the Centre is not, however, what it
claims to be. It is neither national in its outlook nor
is it capable of left orientation, let alone being
united.
How can parties with membership of single and double
digits in a lok Sabha of 543 claim to represent national
orientation?
The main constituent of the UF, the Janata Dal (JD), has
44 MPs in the Lok Sabha. They are mainly elected from
Karnataka and Bihar. In 1989 when they had first formed
the government that lasted for 11 months, they had 141
MPs.
Today, their only concern is the promotion of
reservations to other backward classes (OBCs) in the name
of social justice.
But the OBCs, not actually any one caste but a
collectivity of communities, nither suffer from any
historical social injustice like the schedule castes
(SCs) nor do they live in the forests like tribes. By
equating class with caste,the JD has made highly divisive
class considerations into a political factor.
They can never rise above the caste factor to see to the
national interest.
The leftover of the Left in this country is a semi-part
of UF. Here too the main constituent of the LF, the
Marxists fight shy of joining the government. Their
influence will hence be devoid of accountability.
What has been the performance of the Marxists, anyway?
They accuse, very rightly, the Congress of corruption.
But scholars in Calcutta tell me that Marxists have
accumulated wealth in the last 20 years which surpasses
what the congress has accumulated over the last 40 years.
With one difference.
In the it is inffividuals who have made money, but in the
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) it is the party
that has accumulated wealth.
The record of the LF in Bengal in administration or law
enforcement leaves much to be desired. It is the state
With maximum undertrials.
in an election-eve interview Jyoti Basu criticised S S
Ray's rewrd of fake encounter killings of suspected
Naxalites in the 1970s. What has been the Marxist's
record in law enforement?
On April 30, 1982, 17 Anand margis were burnt alive by
Marxist activity in Calcutta. The culprits are yet to be
punished.
To begin with, the UF was the Third Front, which at least
was accurate strength-wise. But after the elections it
was rechristened the United Front. 'United' over what?
The only thing common among the UF's constituents is
their hasty post-election expression of anti-BJPism,
because they are all secular.
Who should give them a certificate of Secularism? For
how long can power sustain mutually contradictory forces
on the strength of a negative dislike of the BJP?
What is the public acceptability of the UF? the people in
India are more intelligent than their leaders.
An opinion poll has that given an alternative to a hung
Parliamant, most people would have voted for
predominantly the BJP or the Congress but not for the NF-
LF.
In any developed country, sensitive to public opinion,
political parties would not have got themselves involved
in the force of forming a post-election hotch-potch
front. But Indian politicians are different.
The future is bleak. A prolonged period of political
instability, with the UF government being replaced by a
single party one - the Congress with some of the UF
extending support from outside as a reciprocal gesture -
is what seems to be in store for us.
By August 1997, when we are in the 50th Year of our
independence, people may question the very credibility of
democracy.
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