Opinion Where is the loyal opposition?

Neither of them fully agreed with the plan. Both were trying to distance themselves from someone who they saw as a discredited president. And yet they went along with him and in the process they definitely averted the catastrophic possibility of 30 per cent unemployment rates emerging. And let’s not forget the fact that both McCain and Obama paid a price for their actions. Large sections of voters were angry that they were party to bailing out fat-cat bankers who were seen as having caused so much general misery.

President Obama is still paying the price for what he could have passed off as actions attributable to his predecessor. Hilary Clinton and Obama faced off against each other in a pretty brutal primary campaign. And yet when it was over and the proverbial dust had settled,Clinton joined Obama’s cabinet as a loyal colleague.

The situation in India is very different. Political opposition is taken as an end in itself,and leads to disequilibrium situations which can be destructive — and not just to individual political parties. In recent times,one could argue that it is the BJP which started the chain of unprincipled opposition. During the NDA rule,the Congress gave support to the BJP on issues like insurance sector reform where the two were on the same page. The BJP has not reciprocated. Its opposition to the Indo-US nuclear treaty was the worst example of this.

Most BJP leaders would have conceded in private that the treaty was on balance in India’s interests,and was taking forward the initiatives of the Vajpayee government. And yet,for short-term gains,they were willing to jettison a unique opportunity to get India out of the shadow of nuclear apartheid. There was every reason to believe that once President George W. Bush was out of office,this opportunity would not recur. Even this knowledge did not result in sober good sense prevailing.

In economic matters,the opposition of the BJP states to the GST which is a pro-growth,pro-poor measure remains both immature and inexplicable. The Congress has now responded with a similar non-constructive approach. Rather than apologising for the corruption scandals happening on their watch on the national scene,the UPA 2 dispensation is simply stating that BJP states also have their share of corruption. The novel idea that your opponent’s crime justifies your own has no place in civilised jurisprudence,and yet this argument is being trotted out repeatedly.

What is worse is that the Congress seems to be working overtime to weaken the few autonomous institutions which have safeguarded our republic,and which have helped us to avoid the fate of neighbouring Myanmar or Pakistan. The violation of the accepted process of consensus in the appointment of a controversial person as the Central Vigilance Commissioner is being brazenly defended. It is almost as if there is a deliberate and conscious effort to destroy the credibility of this independent institution.

The covert and not so covert attempts to weaken the RBI and Sebi by creating a new executive-dominated council and by taking financial autonomy away from Sebi follow this same pattern. The recent attacks on the Comptroller and Auditor General once again take us back to the display of executive arrogance so characteristic of the Indira Gandhi days. The nation’s hope that the Congress party will learn the right lessons from history,imitating Indira’s strengths rather than her weaknesses,is being betrayed even as we speak.

The principle of destructive mutual opposition seems to prevail even inside the canopies of coalition politics. In Maharashtra,it is no secret that any measure proposed by the Congress will be opposed by the NCP and vice versa. We even have the strange situation of the long-promised bridge between the island city of Mumbai and the mainland being endlessly postponed merely because two different state agencies are involved — one supervised by a Congress minister and the other by his NCP colleague.

It seems that we do not need external adversaries. We are quite capable of paralysing ourselves into inaction with no help from the sinister “foreign hand”.

As for the unproductive nature of the coalition politics derived from the Congress party’s association with the Trinamool and the DMK,the less said the better. With friends like these,the Congress must much prefer open opponents like Karat and Advani! In the UK,despite many differences among their rank-and-file followers,Cameron and Clegg seem to be able to move on with politically difficult decisions. But learning from our erstwhile rulers does not seem to be to our liking. Many French politicians took the position in the 1930s that supporting the Germans was better than supporting the incumbent French prime minister. No wonder France collapsed ignominiously in 1940.

Let this be a warning to us. We live in a dangerous neighbourhood. It is incumbent upon us not to convert every issue into one of extreme partisanship. The Republic of India deserves our coming together on matters of common interest.

The writer divides his time between Mumbai,Lonavala and Bangalore jerry.rao@expressindia.com