Flip-flop Jaya

Although the Bharatiya Janata Party has succeeded in bringing AIADMK leader Jayalalitha around, there is no mistaking that the party has bee...

Although the Bharatiya Janata Party has succeeded in bringing AIADMK leader Jayalalitha around, there is no mistaking that the party has been deprived of its much-touted stability plank. Ideologically the BJP has little in common with its allies save the Shiv Sena but it was presumed that they would stay together because they had fought the elections jointly. Besides, the BJP had agreed to put its own agenda on the back burner. However, the letter drama the AIADMK staged ran counter to such a belief.

But by persuading her to let the AIADMK and its allies join the government, the BJP has retrieved some of its lost ground. One reason why the AIADMK relented on the letter issue could be its realisation that it had no other option but to facilitate the formation of a BJP government. It would have been foolish on her part to have turned down an opportunity to take part in the government at the Centre. More so when the DMK-TMC combine used to tout the number of Central ministers it had and the benefits thataccrued to the State on that account. However, all this does not mean that the problems for the BJP are over. In a personality-oriented party like the AIADMK, it is the whims of its leader that matter. If Jayalalitha can change her political stand so drastically in such a short time, there is no guarantee that she will remain a loyal, disciplined ally of the BJP.

Whatever the BJP8217;s protestations, the party position in the 12th Lok Sabha is such that it cannot afford to antagonise the AIADMK which, along with its own allies, is the second largest group in the BJP coalition. Some of the points Jayalalitha wants to include in the national agenda her own hidden agenda borders on the outlandish the BJP is now drawing up in consultation with its allies are so contentious that their acceptance can even jeopardise the government. Take the case of designating Tamil as an official language. Tamil may be a national language in several south-east Asian nations but in India it is just one among the 19 Constitutionallyrecognised languages. Giving it any status higher than that of Telugu or Marathi is to invite trouble. Alternatively, if all the national languages are given official-language status there will be utter confusion. Similarly, the Centre cannot be oblivious to the feelings in Karnataka when it takes up her demand on the sharing of Cauveri waters. Surely Jayalalitha cannot be unaware of the limitations of the BJP in this regard. Yet, it is the insistence on such demands that makes her motives suspect.

Of course, much will depend on the Prime Minister8217;s ability to carry along his allies as one composite team. That Jayalalitha felt slighted at the first meeting of the BJP with its allies is a reminder that the party was yet to come to grips with managing a coalition. The BJP, which always dreamed of ruling the country as a single pan-India party, had not reconciled itself to humouring its allies and managing the contradictions inherent in a coalition of disparate parties. Its experience so far has been confinedto playing a secondary role in two-party coalitions in states such as Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana. Hence the quicker it learns to run a coalition, the better for itself and its allies. Sunday8217;s mission to Chennai by Jaswant Singh shows that the party is learning the ropes.