Making, unmaking govts

As the incoherence in JK looks headed towards a resolution and the picture in Uttar Pradesh gets messier still, is it possible perhaps to g...

As the incoherence in J038;K looks headed towards a resolution and the picture in Uttar Pradesh gets messier still, is it possible perhaps to glean a few lessons already, some pointers for the future? Though the settings differ, in both states, the challenge is power-sharing between political parties. In both, it is proving to be an excruciatingly arduous process in which arithmetic and personal egos dominate while the people8217;s mandate and a common minimum programme that can best meet it, are edged out of the frame. A decade and more after coalition politics set in, it would seem that political parties in India are exclusively focused on coming to power. They have yet to think seriously about how to share it.

This failure to match step with the times is most graphically illustrated by the Congress today, cast in a leading role after elections in J038;K and likely to have importance thrust on it by the self-destructing BJP-BSP coalition in UP. India8217;s oldest party still pretends to the grandeur of a bygone age when it presided over a one-party dominant system. It remains a closed-circuit party that has steadfastly refused to learn the art of making and nurturing linkages. Its high command remains aloof, its think-tank has still to go beyond regurgitating old slogans or passing off vacuous pieties as brainstorming 8212; remember Panchmarhi? The strategic road map chalked out behind closed door sessions in the September of 1998 was conspicuously silent on the possible terms of leading an anti-BJP alliance to power. The party has no blueprint at all, no guidelines for a future in which the party may have to yield some inches to other parties in order to firm up its grip on the ruling space. Will the arrangement it has worked out with the PDP in J038;K translate into more openness, and the willingness to accommodate and adjust, in the longer term?

Problem is, with political parties still to work out the terms of their relationship with each other, and with that task monopolising all their time and energy, little or no attention can be spared for that other more crucial relationship 8212; between government and people. Be it the people of J038;K who defied the militant en route to the polling booth or the people of UP who have had many governments but no governance for years now, they deserve more. They deserve governments that are less preoccupied with survival, that are more sensitive to their hopes and aspirations. Here8217;s one suggestion towards making this possible: why don8217;t all parties take a sabbatical from politicking and use the time to think through the answers to the new questions that a more fractured politics has posed?