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| Sleepless nights for big bullies | | |
Till few days back they were the peoples dumped by the BJP and the Congress and relegated in a relative oblivion. But today they are at centerstage of the political things and have come into the shape of a formidable force called ‘Third Front’. With the announcement of Lok Sabha elections, the Indian political scenario is fast changing. Apart from the emergence of third front, there are regional forces which are sending sleepless nights to the big bullies –the Congress and the BJP. With its small number of six seats in the Lok Sabha, Jammu and Kashmir largely remained unaffected by the major political permutations but elsewhere in the country the regional forces are calling shots. This is a question that has been answered in different ways in the recent past. When the post-Emergency run of Congress governments came to an end in 1996, few would have bet on a hotchpotch of regionals taking centrestage. But that’s exactly what they did, and threw up two Prime Ministers in two years. Such fecundity alerted the system against trusting the reins of the country to a collection of political entities whose turf mostly does not extend beyond one state. For a time, in changing combinations, they did service with the BJP-led NDA to keep afloat the government of Atal Behari Vajpayee. Six years later, the Congress too got wise to the act and devised its own alliance of mostly no-ideology parties, since winning the country all by itself appeared out of the question. However, as the day nears for the general election that will throw up the next Parliament, the erstwhile "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for other parties are giving the impression of "going it alone", meaning nursing the aspiration to rule the Centre on their own steam. The proposition is heretical in the light of India’s experiential knowledge as well as its inherited wisdom. When the oddballs have enjoyed power at the Centre, it has always been in association with one or another "national" party. Can they do it on their own this time around? This is one of the axial questions of the 15th general election. A recent rally in the South Indian city of Banaglore of the aspiring third front partners was reportedly impressive. We may rest assured, however, that this says nothing at all for the prospects of the putative third front, for in a country known for its fidelity to "rent-a-crowd" tactics any party can go fetch people to a rally. Before the election, the only link the regional satraps have with one another is through the bridge provided by the Left. At some point or another in its colourful experience of parliamentary politics — as opposed to the "revolutionary" path — the Left has dealt with perhaps all of these parties with varying degrees of exasperation. Now that not even an echo is heard of the old liberation rhetoric, is it any surprise that the Left should give all it has got to the search for anti-BJP, anti-Congress parties. Does such an animal exist except in the mind of the Left is a good question? But that does not necessarily make it a good starting point for reading the wind this election. Too many unknowns need to be taken into account for anything approaching credible analysis this time around. This is for a variety of reasons, not least the delimitation of 499 Lok Sabha constituencies out of 543. This is no reason of course why the Left in search of perestroika or restructuring of politics should not have another go at redefining the goals of the mind. As for the regionals, they have nothing to lose but their chains.
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