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Journalism of Courage
As the Atal Behari Vajpayee government completes one year, its greatest achievement is that it has survived for so long. It has given a lie to those who had forecast that heading, as the Prime Minister does, a ragtag coalition of over a dozen political parties, he would survive at best for a few months. Far from that, there is still no alternative in sight to the Vajpayee government.
In fact, it is the absence of a choice that forces some of the coalition partners to stick together. Hamstrung as the BJP is by the compulsions of coalition politics, it has belied the hopes of some of the hardliners in the party who expected a dramatic shift in the policies of the government. The changes in domestic and foreign policies have been marginal, if not negligible. Notwithstanding the Swadeshi chorus, it has been able to carry on with its economic reforms.
But more than the explosions, it is in the management of their political and diplomatic fall-out that the government demonstrated its ability. If India could stand up to the needless sanctions imposed by the US and other developed countries, it is a measure of not only the intrinsic strength of its economy but also the strength and vibrancy of its political leadership.
Similarly, the historic bus ride on February 20 may not have achieved a dramatic breakthrough in India-Pakistan relations but it certainly showed the government in a good light, both within and without the country. On such issues as CTBT and missiles, it gave due weightage to nationalconsensus.
In the domestic arena, the constraints imposed by the pulls and pressures of coalition politics were conspicuous. In fact, its image of being a 8220;roll-back government8221; was in no small measure dictated by pressures of being in an unwieldy coalition. For every little thing that the government does, it has to anticipate the reaction of the Mamatas and Jayalalithas.
Even so, to blame the BJP8217;s allies alone for this is to overlook the fact that the government faced acute problems on account of the differences of opinion within the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. Never was this more evident than when incidents of communal violence broke out in states like Gujarat and Orissa.
What helped the Vajpayee government certainly was the fact that the Opposition has more or less played ball, except on the occasional issue like President8217;s rule in Bihar. Ultimately, the BJP cannot blame anyone else for its lapses, a point underscored by the results of the assembly elections held in four major states a few monthsago.
As one recent public opinion poll has shown, the Prime Minister has scored better than the government he heads has. The government8217;s inability to highlight its achievements on account of poor public relations has also worked to the detriment of the BJP-led government8217;s image. There is an urgent need to correct these distortions even as the government is entitled to celebrate its first birthday.
