Sense and consensus

Earlier, the BJP touched yet another height of morality8217; when it bought AIADMK chief Jayalalitha8217;s support in lieu of ministries. She had wanted particularly the portfolios of Law and Revenue because she considers them necessary to scotch cases of corruption, graft and the misuse of power filed against her. AIADMK8217;s M.Thambi Dorai is the Union law minister. He has already said that there is nothing in the cases against his leader8217;. Another person from Jayalalitha8217;s party, R.K. Kumar, is in charge of revenue. As a chartered accountant, he knows all the intricacies that the financial dealings entail.

It is obvious that the BJP drew no lesson from what its chief minister, Kalyan Singh, did in UP. The ministerial caps he awarded to all the defectors who helped save his ministry gave the BJP a bad name. The party defended itself on the grounds that this was 8220;an aberration8221;. But Kalyan Singh went ahead and committed yet another 8220;aberration8221; when he appointed four more defectors as ministers. The Speaker of the UP Assembly, Kesri Nath Tripathi, who still regards himself as a loyal member of the BJP, has brought no glory to the party. He has legalised defection. By recognising the rebels8217; from the BSP as a separate group in the form of the Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party he clearly favoured the BJP government. The Speakerhas set a precedent which the BJP will regret one day.

Again the BJP was not convincing when it denied the charge of offering money and ministries to members of the BSP from the Lok Sabha to join its ranks. The uproar in the House was understandable. But the BJP8217;s response Prime Minister Vajpayee was the only one who was open to a discussion was not. The BJP should have taken the initiative to refer the matter to the Privileges Committee. Otherwise, such allegations are difficult to prove unless someone who accepts money turns an approver as in the JMM case.Come to think of it, the parties and individuals the BJP has strung together to form the government are here not on the basis of power, not ideology. They have been given ministries and, in some cases, the portfolio of their choice. For the time being they are pacified. The TDP can join the cabinet tomorrow if its demand is certain positions in the council of ministers. The BJP has dangled cabinet berths to certain other groups as well. If this is notcalled trading in power, what is?

True, the BJP alone is not to blame. All political parties are trying to increase their strength by hook or by crook. On the question of morality, even the opposition parties do not emerge clean. The UF is willing to forget and forgive all that former Chief Minister Laloo Yadav has done in Bihar. In the name of fighting communalism, his corruption and that of many like him is overlooked. The Congress is no better. It is back with more or less the same faces that reflect the deceit and dishonesty that marked its years in power. To cap all, it has chosen for the Rajya Sabha people who have been defeated at the Lok Sabha polls. This is tantamount to ignoring the import of the voters8217; rejection of a particular candidate.

The fact that the Communists were more than prepared to support a Congress-led government, even before all the election results were out, indicates its penchant for the dynasty. It is like jumping into the lake in preference to the sea. Perhaps equanimity andpolitics do not go together. No party is without blemish, but some are more so.What makes the BJP more blameworthy is that it is the main partner in the ruling combination and sets the standards. People, no doubt, wrongly expect it to behave differently because it has struck a moral posture in the past. After all, it was this party that had only a few days ago conveyed through the President8217;s address that 8220;parliamentary arithmetic alone cannot provide the key to good governance8221;. If this is so, it has begun its stint on the wrong foot. After having worked for a consensus candidate for the post of Speaker and after congratulating former Speaker P.A. Sangma for making the position, it was an act of perfidy on the BJP8217;s part not to have supported him. No one is against TDP8217;s G.M.C. Balayogi, but by opting for him, the BJP nipped the chance of co-operation in the bud.

That one act has created so much bad blood between the BJP and the opposition that the latter has begun to suspect conspiracy lurking at everycorner. The atmosphere exudes mistrust. There was no political plot in including Mamata Bannerjee in the team which went to Midnapore, to assess the damage from the cyclonic storm that had hit the area. She happened to be at the office of the Prime Minister at the time when he asked Agriculture Minister Som Pal to go to Midnapore. But the opposition suspected the worst. After the Prime Minister8217;s statement that he had first sounded former home minister Inderjit Gupta in the matter, the controversy should have ended. But the opposition8217;s lack of faith in the BJP led it to stage a walk out from the Lok Sabha.

The government has stated, in the President8217;s address, that it will work in a spirit of co-operation, conciliation and consensus8217;. These are brave words. They are welcome because they come at a time when the country is riven with differences at every level, political, economic and social. But how will co-operation emerge when the BJP combination and the opposition are at loggerheads all the time? Heremere appeals will not work. Parties will have to jettison the baggage of hostility they have been carrying thus far. They have to rise above power politics and think about the welfare of their people. Parliament is one forum which provides a place where everyone can air differences and still arrive at some kind of consensus. But this demands a spirit of understanding and accommodation, more so from the ruling combination. But the show of tempers at the first session does not hold out such a hope. The country is in for anxious times.