Fission and fusion

It has always been so. Ever since it was born, the Janata Dal has broken up and reunited, ceaselessly. Over the years, the indefatigable hav...

It has always been so. Ever since it was born, the Janata Dal has broken up and reunited, ceaselessly. Over the years, the indefatigable have even ventured that it was always meant to be so. The Janata Dal, they said, was never slated to be a fixed political address. It was to be the fluid and flexible space that would host an unending 8220;realignment of forces8221; which proclaimed themselves secular and socialist. It would be rife with a happy chaos of continuously hopeful stirrings of the Alternative. When it comes to the Janata Dal, they used to say, normal yardsticks don8217;t apply, it was the nucleus of an experiment, not just another party. Well, even the faithful stopped making the case for JD8217;s immunity long ago. The latest twists only underline how the once ambitious canvas of the Janata story has collapsed pitifully into Such a Sideshow.

What can possibly be said about the unity move reportedly steered by George Fernandes and which is all set to deliver a brand new party comprising his Samata Party make that, only barely his Samata Party and Sharad Yadav8217;s JDU? This drama has no fizz. The cast of characters is made up of the minor players. And it is all happening only within the four walls of the BJP-led NDA. The motive force is so transparently petty. Underneath the slogan of Janata Unity, Fernandes8217;s move is only one or all of the following: a ploy to enhance bargaining power within the NDA, in which the BJP holds all the cards by common consent. A manoeuvre to repeat the 1999 Lok Sabha success of the JD-Samata combine in Bihar, when under a common symbol and in alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan8217;s lot and the BJP, it swept 41 out of 54 seats of the undivided state. A preemptive strike against the looming evil of defections, on the eve of a crucial round of elections.

None of the above bears any resonance whatsoever of the defiant romance of the longago idea that could have been the Janata Dal. None of these leaders must be allowed to make any claim on that 8220;legacy8221;. Fernandes and Co are indulging in pre-poll positioning games. Even if they sort out the ticklish issue of who will be the Leader of them all, their new formation will remain riddled with the larger problem of its supreme irrelevance.