archive: Common manifesto
Common manifesto
Editorial
The Indian Express
April 30, 1999
Title: Common manifesto
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: April 30, 1999
George Fernandes proposal that a BJP-led coalition of parties contest
Lok Sabha elections on a common manifesto is excellent. There is
everything to recommend 16 parties which stood together during and
after the vote of confidence going to the people on a common platform
First, it will help consolidate an existing alliance which, despite
internal contradictions, managed to weather 13 months of the trials
and tribulations of coalition politics. At the very least, the leaders
of these 16 or so parties understand each other's foibles and
failings, know what to expect and how far patience can be tested. In
that sense the last year has been a maturing process for a wondrous
gaggle of parties which few at the outset believed could stick
together for weeks, leave alone get any work done. So why reinvent a
new BJP-led coalition when a workable one is available?
Second, while power was undoubtedly the most important cementing
factor, the agreed national agenda for governance served a vital
function by pushing coalition parties from the extremes towards the
centre of the Indian political spectrum. The BJP, compelled to put on
hold key items of its Hindutva agenda, benefited from it as did
regional parties which were under pressure to temper their
parochialism by adopting a national outlook. As long as the experiment
worked--and many believe Opposition machinations not internal
contradictions brought the government down - it proved the virtues of
a centrist stance. That position was at odds with many individual
party manifestoes but it made sense of a fractured verdict. Third, all
political parties have the responsibility of ensuring that the outcome
of the elections is a stable government at the Centre. That means
pre-poll alliances to minimise the destabilising post-poll scramble
for numbers. Intending coalition partners will need to manage
seat-sharing agreements efficiently based on relative strengths and
weaknesses as proven in the last Lok Sabha polls. The whole exercise
will be more credible if the 16 parties can show they are like-minded
about crucial matters such as economic reform and cultural pluralism
and are not merely, being opportunistic.
Fourth and most important, successive elections have proved there is
no single political ideology which unites the country. And the sum of
fragmented mandates (coalitions) must some- how he larger than the
parts. Centrist programmatic alliances are the only logical way of
producing that outcome. Individual parties may choose to describe
themselves as socialist or Hindutva, pro-poor or pro-Dravidian and
hope that voters like the flavour. But the people must not be
deliberately deceived about the core policies and programmes these
parties intend to pursue as members of a national coalition government
at the Centre. The honest way of mobilising votes is on the basis of a
common election manifesto. Realpolitik may well demand some post-
election compromises, especially to accommodate smaller allies. But it
would be wrong at the outset to give voters the impression they will
get Hindutva or socialism or whatever pure and undiluted. It will not
work. Voters are not naive; they know what coalition politics involve.
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