Not again,Netaji

He is right to say that the days of single-party rule at the Centre are long over. The one-party dominance system collapsed and splintered in the late 1980s and early 1990s,and in a fragmented and regionalised polity,at least in the foreseeable future,it may not be possible for one party to work up a majority. At the same time,however,the idea of the Third Front remains as inchoate,if not more,as it was in its earlier versions. It lacks a centrepiece none of the regional parties can gather a large enough number of seats to give it internal solidity. It also lacks a theme song both anti-Congressism,which briefly became the glue for the National Front,and anti-BJP-ism that held together the short-lived United Fronts,were compromised several times over and have lost their binding force. Since then,the Third Front has failed to nurture another idea say,federalism that could engage all its potential members,straddle and subdue their several conflicting interests and teeming internal contradictions.

The fact is that the wobbly Third Front government of the past only survived with the support of the Congress or BJP. If the BJP and the Left together shored up the V.P. Singh-led National Front,the Congress held up the United Front governments from outside later. There is no reason to believe that this reality has changed. Perhaps,more than a coherent and bounded grouping driven by an ambition to form government,the Third Front is better seen as an open and shifting space in a diverse polity that allows parties to come together and break apart according to changing interests and compulsions. Its search for form and fixity appears to be misjudged and an overreach.

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