HVK Archives: Idiot box no more - comments by a CPM Leader on the debate
Idiot box no more - comments by a CPM Leader on the debate - Times of India
Suneet Chopra
()
7 June 1996
Title : Idiot Box No More
Author : Suneet Chopra
Publication : Times of India
Date : June 7, 1996
IF anything came home to viewers the parliamentary debate
that ended with Mr Vajpayee's hurried resignation as
Prime Minister, it was the role of television as the
great leveller. A number of myths assiduously nurtured
by our colonised elite about the BSP crumbled hopelessly
before the camera's unrelenting gaze.
The first of these was the image the BJP had as a
disciplined force. Anyone who watched the antics of the
BJP-Shiv Sena combine could understand that this so-
called disciplined force made at least as much noise as
13 or so parties put together, and that too despite the
repeated pleas of their senior leaders.
The second was the myth that the BJP has its moderates
and extremists, Right through the debate, Mr Murli
Manohar Joshi's body-language, with all its twists and
turns, reminded us that Mr Vajpayee was only a pawn in
the game. In fact, often as he sat head in hand, he
reminded one of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, the 16th
century Queen of England for nine days - a victim of the
greed of her father-in-law's party at court. It was
evident that the moderates were playing to the tune of
the hard-liners with elements of the election manifesto
like Ayodhya, Article 370 and a common civil code being
jettisoned for immediate advantages which, as the debate
showed, failed to materialise.
The electoral mandate, too, was another myth that was
demolished in the debate. Speaker after speaker pointed
out how a little over 20 per cent of the vote cast could
hardly he called a mandate to govern India.
Hindutva too found no takers among the M.P.s from Andhra
and Tamil Nadu, while in a spirited attack Mr G.G.
Swell, once the BJP's nominee for President, opposed the
cow-slaughter ban sought to be imposed on the north-east
where beef is the cheapest protein available. In a
special barb meant to hit where it, no doubt, did he
declare that the BJP was not likely to succeed where the
Mughals had failed earlier. The same message was clear
from the south and the Dalits of the north. So one was
left wondering whose mandate was it that led the BJP to
grab office as it did.
The unkindest cut of all was CPI(M)'s Somnath Chatterjec
revealing that a hurried lunch-ti'me cabinet meeting
called during the debate had given the Enron project a
counter- guarantee. Finance minister Jaswant Singh
pleaded that they were only ratifying a decision of the
former government, only to be reminded by the CPI(M)
M.P., Mr Anil Basu, that he was the chairman of the
parliamentary consultative committee on power that had
presented a unanimous report to reject such a move.
Unnerved, Mr Singh retreated by saying he had not
expected matters of parliamentary committees to be
discussed on the floor of the House!
Thanks to TV the whole country saw the BJP government
leave under a cloud. And it is an expensive cloud, with
the naphtha bill of the Enron deal alone being calculated
at over RS 50,000 crores in the coming 15 years as a
result of the BJP-Shiv Sena government agreeing to the
second phase of the project, to which even the Congress
had not agreed at the time it was voted out of office.
Seeing the astronomic amounts involved in the deals
these "stable" political forces have saddled the country
with over the years, I think the citizens should be
grateful for, coalitions resulting from elections costing
a mere Rs 300 crores. It, would seem to be a far cheaper
option than the scams and scandals of those who have been
exercising power on a stable basis.
(The author is a member of the central committee of the
CPI(M).
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