Blood feuds

The cat-and-mouse games being played by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party against each other, both in Parliament and outside it, shines a light on the limits of our politics and the ambience of profound suspicion that has come to mark it. A functioning multi-party democracy demands that its political transactions be conducted in a spirit of give and take, and an ability to reach across the innumerable and inevitable divides of a complex landscape. Reaching a point of breakdown is never a happy prospect, as it freezes all negotiation and perpetuates mutually hostile behaviour in a never-ending cycle of viciousness.

Relations between the Congress and the BJP have on occasion reached such a breakdown point. Now Congress-SP ties 8212; never very cordial even when they were supporting each other8217;s governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh respectively 8212; also face the abyss. Every day brings a fresh caper by one party or the other. But the Congress, as the ruling party at the Centre, bears the greater onus for allowing the situation to fester. The party seems to be driven by a curious and somewhat perverse sense of vengeance against Mulayam Singh Yadav and his party, and has failed to internalise the lessons from its clumsy and abortive attempt to impose President8217;s rule in UP.

The irony, of course, is that all these shenanigans are being played out under the shadow of UP assembly elections. No party has benefited electorally from the politics of revenge. The Congress should know this, having so recently paid the price for Captain Amarinder Singh8217;s drive to shackle Akali Dal8217;s Parkash Singh Badal in corruption cases by losing Punjab. The Congress would display more wisdom by concentrating on recovering ground in UP 8212; not by going for Mulayam Singh Yadav8217;s jugular, but by rebuilding its own brand value in a state that has all but forgotten it.