Small is not beautiful

In the game of musical chairs being choreographed in the Capital, a cynical reversal of democratic principles has been enforced. The two ...

In the game of musical chairs being choreographed in the Capital, a cynical reversal of democratic principles has been enforced. The two national formations, the BJP and the Congress 8212; with 182 and 139 MPs, respectively, in the Lok Sabha 8212; seem distinctly leaden-footed, with the smaller parties nimbly hopping to and fro and giving them multiple ankle sprains.

A former chief minister, haunted by dozens of corruption cases, yet secure in the allegiance of 18 servile MPs, brings down a government after prompting the Congress president to venture away from her personal red carpet and exchange pleasantries at a tea party. Another former chief minister, presiding over a fast eroding support base but with his dreams of national importance held aloft by 20 MPs, puts the cat among the pigeons by springing onto a moral high horse and declaring the Congress, in concert with which he brought down the BJP-led coalition, untouchable.

Oh, and don8217;t worry about any ensuing vacuum. Delhi8217;s maze-like corridors of powerare replete with prime ministerial hopefuls, pious mouthed and starry eyed in the comfort of their single-digit mandates. The air is thick with conspiracy theories and rumours of a rag-tag, what else, Third Front government which would exclude the Congress and the BJP alike and include everybody else besides. If the implications for India were not so dire, it would actually make for side-splitting entertainment. For too long now the disproportionate power wielded by self-serving regional satraps though feudal lords would be more applicable for many has been sanctified by talk of federalism and regional participation in the business of the Republic. If only it were that! Nobody can find fault with more equitable Centre-state relations, with strident steps towards meaningful federalism. But when talk of 8220;regional interest8221; becomes a mask for enhancing personal worth or garnering national resources to tend isolated votebanks with not a thought for the larger interests of society, it8217;s time to separate thegrain from the chaff.

And what of the communists, the men and women of principle who use their secure foothold in three states to speak on behalf of the entire political spectrum and frenetically cobble together unwieldy solutions to the nation8217;s ills? They too cannot escape responsibility for the confusion that besets Indian polity. Ideologically somersaulting their way through the last 13 months, they have made a mockery of the mandate of March 1998. They may have referred to Sonia Gandhi as 8220;that housewife8221;, but now they have become her most loyal spokespersons. They may have cried themselves hoarse about Jayalalitha8217;s dubious stint in power, but now they schedule daily brainstorming sessions with her and pose together merrily for lensmen. They may have spent the last year resolving to bolster the Third Front, but now just when Mulayam Singh Yadav sought to march in that direction, magician Harkishen Singh Surjeet declared, well, the Third Front doesn8217;t exist. These purveyors of alternatives as ingovernment better watch out, for it seems all they have to offer are destabilising cocktails. In a democracy, the numbers game is about mandates, not about arithmetic.