356 reasons

In a federal structure,the business of running a coalition at the Centre is usually a matter of thrust-and-parry,within the framework of give-and-take,between the dominant party and its variously empowered allies. If the polity and mandate be fractured,as in India,policy-making and ensuring the rule of law is equally a question of the coalition leader walking the political tightrope of keeping every party in government in its place,even while meeting its legitimate or practicable demands.

Thats why the newly empowered,and emboldened,Trinamool Congresss demand for presidents rule in West Bengal and fresh assembly elections in the state is disconcerting. Of course,the TC is still confined to the realm of rhetoric,which again must be placed in the context of cabinet-related bargaining. But even if mere rhetoric,theres a danger in loudly making the wrong noises at the start for both the UPA as well as the TC. Just a decade ago,a similar demand,among others,on the part of Jayalalithaas AIADMK for dismissing the DMK government in Tamil Nadu,had brought down a coalition government at the Centre,plunging the country into its third general election in 40 months. Joining the coalition at the Centre is not a licence to use the Central leverage to settle regional or local scores. Dismissal of a state government under Article 356 is an emergency measure,to be taken recourse to only if theres a genuine breakdown of the constitutional machinery.

The emergence of coalition politics as the norm at the Centre has precluded the whimsical or cynical dismissal of state governments that happen to be run by parties in opposition at the Centre. The TC has beaten the Left in the Lok Sabha polls,but not in the assembly elections. The Left Front has a mandate to run Bengal till 2011,and to dislodge it,the TC must use the democratic tool of the ballot. UPA partners should remember that preventing friction or unreasonable demands from ballooning into crises is as much the responsibility of the Congress as theirs,individually. Otherwise,coalition politics is reduced to the politics of blackmail. Of course,the irony in TC leader Dinesh Trivedi citing the Lefts demand for elections in many states,post-Emergency,is not lost.