Wheels within wheels

This time8217;s electoral mandate was clearly in support of a coalition government which is sensitive to regional aspirations, of that there can be little doubt. The success of parties like the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa, the Lok Shakti in Karnataka, the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal testifies to this phenomenon. Therefore, on the face of it, Mamata Banerjee8217;s prompt initiative to forge links with the BJP8217;s allies and form a separate committee to safeguard regional interests is unexceptional. But going by a plethora of instances in the past, committees of this kind end up as bargaining counters for narrow political ends, instead of furthering the true spirit of federalism as they are ostensibly meant to do.

Mamata Banerjee can reassure all and sundry that the committee she hopes to set up will be a 8220;friendly8221; one and there is 8220;no reason to worry8221;. But the point is that once such a body comes into being, there is no stopping political formations within the so-called regionalcommittee from pushing their own vested interests. A situation can arise where the 11 MPs from the northeast could end up working as a separate lobby within the larger regional committee, with an entity like Gegong Apang of Arunachal Pradesh and his two MPs pushing another agenda altogether within the northeastern grouping. There will thus be no end to numerous factions and tendencies emerging from splinters and sub-splinters. Far from helping regional interests, such a process will only encourage dangerous fissiparous trends in the polity and disturb the delicate balance of a healthy federalism within a unified national polity.

The fault really lies in this idea of allies supporting a possible BJP-led government from the outside. There are enough examples from the 11th Lok Sabha to prove that such a relationship makes for situations where a political grouping without any stake in governance can end up playing the spoiler8217;s role to the hilt, with the whole nation emerging much the worse for it. Given thisunfortunate history, Mamata Banerjee et al must re-consider their stand about not joining government. It would make more sense for them to pursue their regional agendas from within the government, rather than from within artificially constructed committees. That way, regional groupings will have both the power and the responsibility to pursue their genuine concerns.

There8217;s rich irony in the fact that even without any evidence of a stable government, in the first place, there is already a surfeit of committees to oversee it. If the BJP and its allies are successful in forming a government at the Centre, it will have to reckon with the much-talked-about coordination committee to oversee relations between the BJP and its allies. As if this is not enough, the RSS wants to set up a 8220;core committee8221; to monitor the functioning of the Cabinet. While the aim of all these bodies is to help in the smooth functioning of government, they could quickly deteriorate into attempts at putting a spoke in its wheel.