Team Ramdev

There is no better time to directly take on the UPA. Yet NDA hitches its wagon to Ramdev

There is no better time to directly take on the UPA. Yet NDA hitches its wagon to Ramdev

No more sneaking around and pretending to be just good friends,the many forces of opposition to the Congress have now congregated under Ramdevs tent. Their motives are no longer secret,or a matter of speculation. For all the insistence that Ramdevs was not a political front,the NDA was formally arrayed at Ramlila Maidan BJP president Nitin Gadkari,NDA convenor Sharad Yadav,Janata Partys Subramanian Swamy and Akali Dal leaders shared Ramdevs stage as were Team Anna eminences like Kiran Bedi. They all used the same language and the same logic,on black money or on the Congresss alleged control of the CBI,and committed to the same goals. Unlike Team Anna,Ramdevs mobilisation has been much less uncomfortable with its saffron tint. The RSSs organisational help and the BJPs backing were not hidden. The iconography of his venues,the presence of angry sadhus and the tenor of the speeches left no doubt about the political orientation of his protest,and whom it was set to benefit. And so,this open melding of their manifestos makes the political and electoral field clearer.

For the NDA,it makes sense to co-opt the Ramdev-Anna energies,to tap into the many wells of discontent they represent. In fact,not allying with them would have meant a splitting of this constituency,which might have served the Congress. And yet,does the NDA really want to be associated with this particular crew of agitators? Kiran Bedi,for whom rape is a small matter,V.K. Singh,the former army chief who didnt even wait to cast off his uniform before plunging into open warfare with the government,Subramanian Swamy,now formally part of the NDA,who declares it a battle between Om and Rome? The NDA cannot have it both ways: allow those like Swamy to voice the most uncivil and fantastical theories about a political opponent and also claim to be a rational force of opposition.

This is especially regrettable,because there is no better time to take on the UPA straight. The governments policy missteps,corruption scandals,bungling of law and order and the state of the economy,are all ammunition for the NDA. In Parliament,the NDA has presented an intellectually alive and vigorous opposition to the government. However,instead of trusting the honest merits of its own arguments,and pitching an alternative governing philosophy,the NDA seems content to merely rouse the rabble.