Enemies, not targets

With politicians, whether appreciative, overwhelmed or unimpressed by the 8220;sacrifice8221;, quietening down a bit, and politics hopefully soon to return to normal 8212; which will require first and foremost a reconvening of Parliament and a mature discussion on the office of profit issue 8212; there should be careful reflection on one point: politics of revenge and personal animus.

Congress versus SP may have started the process that led to all the avoidable impropriety and drama. But in its wake came the BJP8217;s tendency to hyperventilate about Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee8217;s attempts to settle scores with some Left MPs, Congressmen8217;s dislike of everyone who interrogates Sonia Gandhi. Before this, and in recent history, we have had Lalu Yadav versus Ram Vilas Paswan, Mulayam Yadav versus Mayawati, Narasimha Rao versus 10 Janpath. All these and other examples have one thing in common: both sides lose, and the side that appears to have won, loses more. What has the Congress gained by intensely disliking Mulayam? Nothing until the last 48 hours, and opprobrium after that. What has the BJP gained by appearing to lose its sense of political proportion when it came to Sonia? The party has seemed incapable of galvanising on any substantive, non-personalised issue. What did 10 Janpath gain by keeping Rao out of the loop? It lost the services of one of the most astute operators Indian politics has ever had.

Politics ultimately can8217;t be about score settling. It is awful to see and awful for the system. The BJP and the Congress especially need to get over their mutual dislike. For that the BJP needs to acknowledge Sonia8217;s position 8212; as an important interlocutor, not an interloper. The Congress needs to mute 8212; elimination is perhaps impossible 8212; its reflex action whenever the Family comes up in political discourse or strategy. Let8217;s put it this way: if we are a mature democracy, L.K. Advani and Sonia Gandhi should be able to sit down and discuss things that matter to them 8212; and to us.