The coalition dharma

The coalition dharma

It is not only its `Dravidian' ally that the BJP has answered through the Chennai Declaration, dr-afted by its national executive for adoption by the national council. The general council of the DMK had, after all, voiced its own apprehension some days ago at its own session when it spoke of the dual-ag-enda issue at the Centre. Other allies of the BJP and its partners in power have also been uneasy over the conflict between the official agenda of the National Democratic Alliance and the apparently unabandoned agenda of its staunchly and stridently saffron section. Nor was the DMK being unintelligibly vague in warning against any constituent of the NDA implementing ``its own agenda'' in violation of the collective and common agenda.

The context could not have been clearer. It was provided by the private members' Bills in Parliament for a Uniform Civil Code and a ban on cow slaughter; Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta's stray, yet unambiguous, thoughts on Ayodhya, and Union Minister UmaBharati's emphatic endorsement of the same. To this string of immediate provocations had been added the rhetoric from the rest of the Sangh Parivar. The Chennai Declaration, on the face of it, is an attempt by the BJP to rise to this challenge from within. It will be widely seen as a victory for the Vajpayee line in the ruling camp.

Positive significance will also be seen in the fact that the declaration speaks the Prime Minister's language while asserting the sanctity and supremacy of the NDA agenda for the BJP-headed government. Even more significant, however, is the emphatic proclamation that ``the era of coalitions is here to stay''. This makes ``the coalition dharma'' much more than a merely temporary inconvenience to be endured. It seeks to dispel fears created by the statements of BJP luminaries -- like Ram Prakash Gupta now and Govindacharya before -- that the BJP is just waiting for its own majority to bring to the fore the issues ``on the back burner'', to implement a ``hidden agenda''.

Quite afew of the party's allies have been understandably unexcited about paving the way for such a prospect. But it is not only political parties that need a reassurance of the kind the declaration represents a significantly large section of the electorate that constitutes the expanded base and enlarged mandate of the BJP does to.

There has been much talk about the party not being allowed to perform by some of its allies (like Jayalalitha's AIADMK). The complaint about the Prime Minister not being allowed to function because of hardliners in the Parivar, the upholders of the dual agenda, may not be as commonly heard. But the criticism will have to be taken seriously, if the party does not want to regress to the status of a political sect. But apprehensions of the allies and others cannot be allayed, entirely and for ever, by the adoption of the declaration alone. It is not only the anti-BJP political opinion that accuses the party of double-faced tactics. Even within the party, there is no unanimity on theissue. Hence, the declaration will have to be followed by action, if it is to carry conviction both with the BJP's allies and the people at large.