HVK Archives: End-game
End-game - Frontline
Editorial
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25 July 1997
Title: End-game
Author: Editorial
Publication: Frontline
Date: July 25, 1997
It would be too flattering to assign to Laloo Prasad Vadav's desperate and
sordid power play a central causative role in the downfall of the United
Front Government which cannot (at best) be more than a few months away. The
Gujral regime seemed self-propelled in that direction, incapable as it was
from the start of taking any kind of principled stand against anyone
accused of corruption and malfeasance in office.
Going soft on, if not shielding, the Bihar Chief Minister and erstwhile
Janata Dal chief notwithstanding his chargesheeted involvement in the Rs.
1,000-crore Animal Husbandry Department seam; attempting to give a quiet
burial to the Jain hawala cases against a range of politicians in the wake
of the Delhi High Court judgment, mounting a tirade against an
independent-minded head of the Central Bureau of Investigation and
eventually shifting him out without the fig leaf of a justification;
delaying sanction for prosecuting public servants in the Bofors case.
putting pressure on an Enforcement Directorate zealously pursuing economic
offences., and generally sending out a signal that the Prime Minister was
opposed to "witch hunts" (read zealous and politically inconvenient
campaigns against corruption) - all this has meant that this second U.F.
Government has lacked moral credibility. Since the Prime Minister has a
reputation for personal cleanliness and integrity, the only explanation for
this unedifying course that fits is that he is bent on survival and is
willing to pay a high price for it.
The Laloo-centred split in the Janata Dal, the supposedly leading component
of the United Front, reflects of course the traditional factionalism and
splintering tendencies of the Janata, or 'centrist', part of the Indian
political spectrum. But to note this is hardly to do justice to the crux
of the present situation. What the formation of the Rashtriya Janata Dal
expresses is a cynical disregard for rectitude and accountability in public
life - in which the official Janata Dal, now headed by the dubious Sharad
Yadav, shares complicity.
Those who have chosen to make common cause with the Bihar Chief Minister
are making a political statement: that mass leaders, those in high places,
must continue to enjoy immunity from prosecution - and that the law be
damned. The shocking fact is that the Prime Minister, who is de facto
leader of the Janata Dal, has thus far taken a stance of masterly
inactivity on the issue of corruption that could make P.V. Narasimha Rao
himself envious.
Inder Kumar Gujral has not spoken out against Laloo flouting all norms of
decency in public life by remaining glued to his Chief Minister's chair and
issuing all kinds of dire threats against political opponents and legal
institutions. Gujral has not dropped the three Union Ministers who have
brazenly lined up behind Laloo. And Gujral has proposed putting off a U.F.
Steering Committee meeting that would settle the question of whether
Laloo's RJD could be allowed to be part of the ruling Front. There was no
guarantee that a firm and principled stand against corruption a la
Vishwanath Pratap Singh would have meant a longer term for the present
Prime Minister. But such a stand would have ensured moral and political
credibility for his minority Government and reasonable prospects for the
United Front as a whole.
There are several other weaknesses within the United Front. On economic
policy questions, including the major question of how to tackle the oil
pool deficit, the Front seems quite divided and the Government clearly
incapable of coherent thinking, let alone action. Most of the promises
contained in the Common Minimum Programme remain unattended. And relations
between some U.F. constituents are in poor shape.
Unfortunately, the impending fate of this second 'third force' experiment
(the first collapsed under more honourable circumstances, under the
combined weight of a firm anti-communal stand and Mandal, in 1990) can be
presented by its opponents as a sort of triumph of experience over hope.
Where does this leave the Indian polity?
There has been a good deal of press commentary and analysis on the theme of
the Congress(l)'s decline and fall. While there is no indication that at
the mass political level the party that has ruled India for much of its
independent career is beginning to do well, there are certain signs that
under the stewardship of Sitaram Kesri it has been able to achieve a kind
of organisational resurgence, or at least functionality, that places it in
a position of relative advantage. It seems guaranteed that in the coming
weeks, the Congress(I) will seek to impose toughened terms on a practically
lame-duck Gujral Government, in return for unreliable support. As for the
Bharatiya Janata Party and the communal challenge it spearheads, the
developments within the Janata Dal and the weaknesses and contradictions
within the United Front will offer it an opportunity to take the high moral
ground and campaign on issues on which it hopes to score in the twelfth
general election that cannot be very far away.
All this does not a bright prognosis make but there is a need for those who
place their hopes in a third force, an effective secular and democratic
alternative to the communal BJP and the corrupt Congress(I), to face
realities and be prepared for setbacks.
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