He may have fretted over it endlessly, and helplessly, in his sick-bed, but at least in his death former prime minister Chandra Shekhar was able to do something about what he saw as the most dangerous trend in Indian politics: leaders of various parties not talking to each other. The BJP and the Congress have stopped talking, he would say. The Left won’t talk to the BJP anyway, and Lalu and Mulayam stay clear off each other, as do Mulayam and Mayawati. Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa won’t even greet each other. “This is no way to run India’s politics. It wasn’t like this even when the Emergency ended and so many of us came out of Indira’s prisons,” he said when I dropped by to check on his health several months back.

He was happy the NDA had got defeated in 2004, and that Sonia Gandhi had decided “wisely and magnanimously” not to become prime minister, as it would have divided India and embittered its politics. But even a veteran like him was completely foxed by how polarised this Parliament had become. At this rate, he said, it might just become impossible to build another coalition in 2009. What is the point of building a V.P. Singh or Gowda kind of coalition that will be brought down within months, more by personal antagonism than by ideological differences?

In the bitterest of times in the past, he said, the consultative process between the serious political parties and players had not broken down. Most importantly, social graces, “subeh shaam ka uthna-baithna” (social and family contact) as he put it, were never lost. But now, he was dismayed by how divided the polity had become. He said he did not exactly know where the talks with Pakistan or the US on the nuclear issue were headed but he trusted this government to look after India’s interests as well as anybody else. But will they be able to settle anything unless they take the NDA along?

... contd.