Just imagine. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav, who blamed the Congress for the demolition of the Babri Masjid and stole its votebank, have made a total U turn: they are imploring the Congress to lead the secular front.

You may be forgiven to ask: which secular front? The United Front, after all, was universally advertised as the secular front until, lo and behold, the convener of this secular front, Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhyra Pradesh, bolted. He indicated a preference for the BJP over the Congress. In fact it was the convener ofthe secular front who, in the ultimate analysis, enabled a BJP-led coalition to be installed at the Centre.

Can one, therefore, blame the Congress for being a trifle wary of the label ``secular front''? The United Front under Deve Gowda and Inder Gujral respectively as prime ministers had applied the tactic of opposing the BJP and pulverising the Congress. The UF leaders advanced the following argument. We need the Congress to fight the BJP's communalism but we cannot have the Congress in the government because we, the UF, are in direct conflict with the Congress in eight states. There was, in other words, a basic contradiction between the various UF partners (which included the two Yadavs) and the Congress.

And now that the Yadavs are inviting the Congress to lead a ``secular'' coalition, what happens to the basic contradiction on the ground? By indicating its reluctance to be seduced into power in the short run leading a fragile coalition, the Congress has for the first time in recent years set its eyeson the long term. And there can be no long-term gamplan for the Congress without the party evolving some strategy to recover lost ground in UP and Bihar where those proposing yet another secular front have actually walked away with the Congress support base.

All of this indicates a degree of political maturity that has not been associated with the Congress in recent years. The sheer novelty of the Congress emitting good sense causes the sceptics among the analysts to ask a few pertinent questions.

Is the current phase of restraint to be attributed to sound political judgment or to the various insecurities that afflict the Congress? For example, is the party avoiding a coalition at this stage because it is not sure of Sonia Gandhi's ability to manage diverse pulls that a coalition will inevitably entail? Or is it the party's calculation that the lure of power will bring into the open factional infighting which remains its bane.

In Pachmarhi Sharad Pawar, who won handsomely in Maharashtra in the lastelections in association with Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Republican Party, was seen to have been thwarted where the party showed no urgent enthusiasm for coalitions. Likewise, Arjun Singh and Narain Dutt Tewari were seen to have been checked in their tracks when noises were made against those who had once left the party and whose ``constancy'' was in doubt. These quarrels could erupt into the open in the event of the ascension to the New Delhi gaddi. So, the message is, set the house in order. Don't get involved in low plots to topple the BJP. Let the BJP at the Centre and in Lucknow arrange by demonstrable incompetence its own early decline. Wait for the results of the elections due November in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Mizoram. Take up the game thereafter.

There is further evidence of a degree of caution and forethought in the general political domain. That Pachmarhi is followed by the CPI party congress in Chennai and the CPM party congress due in Calcutta in October is not without someplanning. The Congress is a rusted party machine. What if the ideologically motivated engine called the Left helps steer it the next few paces? For this project to be even considered the Congress was given a few points to take up at Pachmarhi: socialism, aspects of Garibi hatao, five-point programmes.

If the Congress could give out signals that it was reverting to a more practical, contemporary version of socialism, the CPI and CPM would place the Pachmarhi documents before the two party congresses and gauge to what extent the comrades were willing to go along with the Congress. Clarity on this approach is unlikely to be available before the October party congress and the November elections.

This relatively sophisticated trend in political conduct is also having its impact on the two Yadavs. For example, Laloo Prasad Yadav has been making overtures to Vinod Mishra, the CPML leader, for some degree of co-ordination particularly in central Bihar. Mishra has demanded proof that Laloo is resiling fromthe politics of caste, that he is willing to incorporate into his platform something resembling ideology.

After the hopelessness of recent years, all of this is refreshingly new. What seems to be sinking in with the political parties is a variation of the Biblical dictum: he who is willing to lose in the short run shall win in the long.

The BJP too can make use of this respite constructively: emerge as a party of governance. The alternative is to dissipate itself in power.