Common manifesto

George Fernandes8217; 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 other8217;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 pushingcoalition 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, benefitted 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 8212; and many believe Opposition machinations not internal contradictions brought the government down 8212; 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 16parties 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 somehow be 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 theywill get Hindutva or socialism or whatever pure and undiluted. It will not work. Voters are not naive; they know what coalition politics involve.