Om Haryana

In the best of times, the political marriage between the Haryana Vikas Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Haryana was a shaky one, e...

In the best of times, the political marriage between the Haryana Vikas Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Haryana was a shaky one, especially after it became something of a menage a trois, with the BJP flirting openly with the Indian National Lok Dal.

Once INLD8217;s Om Prakash Chautala agreed to lend 8220;unconditional8221; support to the BJP-led coalition at the Centre, it was only a matter of time before the coalitional experiment, that saw Bansi Lal installed as chief minister of the state, collapsed. Certainly, the moment the INLD agreed to go along with the ruling party in the vote of confidence this May, after having parted ways with it a few weeks earlier, uncertainty came to roost in Haryana politics.

Each passing day brought along with it a new rumour. Nerves were clearly getting frayed, with the HVP and the BJP second-guessing each other8217;s moves. The HVP feared that the BJP was secretly plotting to split its ranks and form an alternative government with the INLD, while the BJP suspected thatthe HVP was trying to do a deal with the Congress. Not surprisingly, after both parties parted ways on Tuesday, the air was thick with accusations and counter-accusations of 8220;betrayal8221;. The fact is that if any entity was betrayed by these unfortunate developments, it was the people of Haryana themselves. After all, it was they who had convincingly voted to power the pre-poll alliance of the HVP-BJP in May 1996. Today, the state8217;s politics is in a mess. If the 11-member BJP has to occupy the treasury benches in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, it will need to do more than join hands with the INLD. It will have to split the 33-member HVP and make certain offers to the 10 independents, offers they can8217;t refuse. Not exactly the kind of activity that makes for transparency 8212; or for the kind of image of itself that the BJP would like to project in these uncertain pre-election times.

It was only after the AIADMK started being difficult, that the BJP seemed to have discovered the extent of corruption that thesouthern party was involved in. In much the same way, the BJP now has suddenly divined that the HVP is not quite straight in its dealings. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vaj-payee himself was at pains to explain that given Bansi Lal8217;s high-handedness and the allegations of corruption against him, the BJP felt a strong urge to distance itself from him. The point is, would the BJP have felt half as strongly about these alleged misdemeanours if the INLD was not at hand to lobby for its own ascendancy? The answer clearly is no. These are cynical power games that are being played with one eye on the ballot box.

The presumption is that Om Prakash Chautala is today far more popular among the Jat voters in the state than Bansi Lal, and that the INLD-BJP front would have a far greater political appeal than the earlier one. Even if this presumption is a correct one, the facile fashion in which the BJP can shed an alliance it once swore on, could send wrong signals 8212; both to its coalitional partners in other states aswell as to voters.