VP reconciled to a split JD

He would only say that the survival of the United Front Government through all this was proof of the success of a political experiment that began in 1977. The former Prime Minister said this was a process in which “what happens to any particular party or individual is not of much concern.”

Singh gave the impression of being detached from events in Delhi and Patna, and said he had been involved in painting.

Despite the distance and his apparent detachment there are matters that clearly bother Singh. He said the polity was less accountable today than it was five years ago. “People were more responsible then, now people think they can get away with anything,” he said. When asked whether it included Laloo Prasad Yadav, Singh said, “Why take one name.. anyway unless the courts make a judgment no one can say anything.”

He said he was glad that it was all coming out through public litigation. “Even the courts’ intervention is welcome.” But, he said, “finally something should happen… at the end of the day everybody gets off scot free.”Singh laid the responsibility for corruption and corrupt politicians at the door of the voter. Nothing would change, he said, unless the people throw out the persons they feel are not right “Madhu Dandavate being defeated by a bank manager.. in a constituency where he had done so much good work..then these voters ask for probity in public life.. what are you asking for?”

Singh was upbeat about his `social justice’ project. That, he said was a “continuing and self-correcting process,” which would become more inclusive, because those who are still not included “will revolt”. He insisted that the third force did not exist simply because someone deemed that it should exist, but “there is a large electorate that does not want the BJP, does not want the Congress.. it is surviving on that basis.. otherwise it would have vanished like the JD.”