Best buddies

Amid the anxieties about a mid-term poll, one thing has become clear. This is not a rupture between allies over a nuclear deal. It is about a deeper dissonance. The nuclear deal has become the emblem of the wider lack of fit between the Congress and the Left parties and their sinking trust levels despite the proliferation of coordination committees. But the ongoing stalemate is, most conspicuously, about the refusal of a partner to play by the rules of the coalition game. The Left may well point out that it is not formally a part of the UPA. But that is merely its version of having its share of the power pie and eating it too. The undeniable fact is this: as a supporting partner of the ruling coalition at the Centre over the last three years, the Left has proved itself to be an especially awkward ally.

From the time that coalitions arrived at the Centre to stay, India8217;s politics has covered some distance. While coalitions in India have mostly been about maximising winnability and less about ideological cohesion, only the hopelessly cynical would deny that there has been an evolution from the free-for-all 8216;realignment of political forces8217; of the early 1990s to more contemporary invocations of the restraints and bounds imposed by 8216;coalition dharma8217;. In a sense, therefore, the Left8217;s behaviour is an unhappy warning of a regression, an indication of lessons not learnt. Take away the ideological mantle and the Left8217;s brinkmanship vis-a-vis the Congress is almost similar to Mamata Banerjee8217;s open blackmailing of the NDA on issues ranging from a hike in oil prices to the bifurcation of the eastern railways. Vajpayee8217;s first government, in fact, had to put up with another publicly temperamental ally in Jayalalithaa who, of course, was driven by no larger a cause than herself.

Among the more notable parties that have been part of ruling coalitions at the Centre and have played it mostly by the book are Lalu Prasad Yadav now, and Chandrababu Naidu earlier. Of course, they have each forced their share of mercenary trade-offs. If Naidu achieved relentless flows of largesse from the Centre for Andhra Pradesh, Yadav even managed to get President8217;s Rule imposed in Bihar after an inconvenient verdict. Yet, as coalition allies, neither rocked the boat overly. Neither stretched the pact too thin. None of them 8212; Lalu or Chandrababu 8212; are political models on their own. Yet, here8217;s a thought: in the coalition era, they have played their part more faithfully than the Left.