Walkoutathon

For the moment at least, the AIADMK members of parliament and their allies are letting their feet do the talking for them in their long and ...

For the moment at least, the AIADMK members of parliament and their allies are letting their feet do the talking for them in their long and somewhat misguided agitation to press for the dismissal of the Karunanidhi government in Tamil Nadu. Thursday witnessed their fourth walkout from Parliament. And, from the looks of it, this will not be their last. AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha8217;s gameplan is patently clear. She means to keep her foot on the parliamentary accelerator even while beating the war drums in the state.

These 8220;walkoutathons8221; her partymen and women are staging are meant as a friendly prelude to the more serious campaign that the lady is planning against her bete noire8217;s so-called anti-farmer policies in the state.

Jayalalitha has never been short on explanations for her obstreperous behaviour. This time, too, she makes a fine point. The agitation, she says, is being done to live up to her promise to the electorate that she will pack off and send home the Karunanidhi government. She haspersuaded herself that she has to do this in order to 8220;save the people of Tamil Nadu8221;. But who is she trying to fool? The grand Karunanidhi dismissal8217; campaign is inspired by one objective only to save the former empress of Tamil Nadu, that is, Jayalalitha herself. The lady may have her political exigencies, but so does the Vajpayee government. While hers centre mostly around ways and means to escape legal retribution for misdemeanours committed in the past, Prime Minister Vajpayee8217;s are all about providing credible governance. The BJP has long expressed its anathema over the exercise of Article 356 to dismiss state governments. If it now succumbs to Jayalalitha8217;s pressure tactics on this score and goes ahead and throws out the Karunanidhi government on the specious plea that the law-and-order situation in Tamil Nadu has suddenly deteriorated, it would stand exposed. The move would be evidence of not just its helplessness to deal with the fiery lady, but of its desperation to remain in power even at thecost of principles it values highly.

So far Prime Minister Vajapayee has preferred to address the issue by not addressing it. Apart from holding out the promise of considering the demand after the budget session of Parliament, he has done very little apart from providing his AIADMK coalition partners with a patient hearing. But given the Jayalalitha8217;s temperament, he will not be given the luxury of prevarication on the issue for much longer. He must, therefore, learn to be more pro-active. Jayalalitha must be told in no uncertain terms that a government dismissal at a stage when Tamil Nadu is relatively free from any obvious militant activity will damage not just his credibility but hers as well. He must also persuade her to call off the 8220;walkoutathon8221; sessions in Delhi because even as they damage the image of his government, they call embarrassing attention to the fact that the AIADMK and its allies are not behaving like mature coalition partners are expected to.