Opinion Effective coalitions

Ever since the Congress lost its hegemonic position in Indian politics in 1989,coalitions are the rule rather than the exceptions.

June 27, 2010 03:01 AM IST First published on: Jun 27, 2010 at 03:01 AM IST

Ever since the Congress lost its hegemonic position in Indian politics in 1989,coalitions are the rule rather than the exceptions. And yet there is a lot of learning to do about how to make coalitions effective. Why,for example,has the Bihar NDA coalition fallen apart? Is it because the senior partner at the national level is a junior partner in Bihar? Or is it because the BJP is so desperate that they wish to use Nitish Kumar to whitewash their pin-up boy Narendra Modi?

In any case,the Bihar coalition seems to be un-rescuable. In Jharkhand,a similar disaster seems to have visited the BJP by the wayward behaviour of the local dada,Shibu Soren. Small states were created to improve governance but Jharkhand is a classic refutation of that theory. It is much easier for mining interests and multinationals to corrupt and capture smaller states than larger states.

Of course,along with the end of the Congress hegemony,the Mandal issue has encouraged the fragmentation of parties along narrow jati lines,especially in North India. For a while it looked as if that strategy wouldnt be viable any longer. Mayawati began to form cross jati alliances. Now Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan have joined together in a Yadav-Dalit alliance just to avoid a drubbing at the next Bihar elections. In both UP and Bihar,the revival of the Congress has destabilised the Yadav-Dalit political fights. The Congress is ready to resume its pre-1989 position as an umbrella organisation for Muslims,Dalits and any other backward/deprived groups with the leadership firmly in Brahmin hands.

This,to a large extent,is an achievement of Rahul Gandhi. He is the first scion of the Dynasty in three generations who has actually done grassroot work before coming to power. His father never found the time and his uncle Sanjay Gandhi started at the top. Indira Gandhi also inherited power and a sound Congress machinery (which she tore apart but that is another matter). If Rahul succeeds in capturing UP and Bihar for the Congress,that would redraw the map of Indian politics for the simple reason that it would guarantee a permanent majority for the Congress at the Centre. And since he is only 40,once he has done that,he will get a long lease on office at the top.

If that were to happen,it will improve Indias governance since unlike UPA II there would be some decisiveness at the top. The drift of indecision in UPA II is quite alarming and difficult to explain. Yet,one also has to worry about the tendency of the Congress to ride roughshod in matters of legality and accountability when it has a large majority. Panditji imposed restraints on himself but his daughter did not. The pathetic farce of Bhopal recriminations shows that when it can,the Congress escapes scrutiny and finds scapegoats.

The only antidote to Congress highhandedness is an effective Opposition. Alas,the BJP is still struggling to come to terms with its double defeat and has not found a coherent voice. When a Party (with the RSS as its progenitor) has to lock up its MLAs to instruct them on how to vote,as the BJP did in Rajasthan,you know no one is in control. The usual hangamas in Lok Sabha apart,the UPA has faced no serious opposition either from the Left or the Right. It is a pity that the CPM is also unravelling rapidly. It made a wrong move in the US nuclear deal case and got battered in the 2009 elections. It is now about to lose West Bengal and Kerala does not look good either.

But I cheer up when I see lots of Indian politicians in London in the summer. Come here and learn how to make a coalition work. There is a hefty document produced by the Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties before they formed the government. In its depth of details and a blending of the rival philosophies,this is a worthy document to study. But then joining politics in UK does not make you a crorepati as it does in India. You actually have to serve the people.