Opinion The helpful Opposition

There is a well-known quip in the House of Commons. A newly arriving MP is shown where different parties sit....

February 28, 2010 02:08 AM IST First published on: Feb 28, 2010 at 02:08 AM IST

There is a well-known quip in the House of Commons. A newly arriving MP is shown where different parties sit. Then he is warned that while his opponents sit across the way,his enemies sit behind him. This is very much the situation for the UPA now. The Opposition sits across from them. But what a remarkably incompetent bunch it is. It is almost as if the Congress had the Opposition made to order.

Evidence of this came again earlier last week. Given the salience of the inflation issue and the long notice the Opposition members had for preparing themselves,they still managed to throw away all the chances. I have been a parliamentarian for 19 years now but never once have I or any of my fellow parliamentarians walked out or done the equivalent of rushing to the well (and drown in it,I suppose). Effective opposition is in staying and hounding the government.

As I was watching the Budget being presented,I knew how bankrupt the Opposition was. To walk out on Monday on a procedural issue and then concede it on Wednesday and fall into the Governments trap was bad enough. But to do it again two days later is just plain incompetence,and the people will have every reason to feel that they have been trashed by their MPs. The government has got away with murder.

The problems of the government,or rather the Congress,come from its coalition partners. The blatant way in which Sharad Pawar has ridden out the inflation crisis and shows no sign of performing any better is just one example of it. I am told the hike in urea prices was also unilateral because Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister MK Alagiri is more interested in the succession battle in Tamil Nadu than he is in his portfolio. There is then the Railway Budget where the same mistake is being made which has cost the Government so much in the case of petrol. Refusing to raise railway fares may be a populist measure but it is sowing the seeds of loss and there will come a time when the Railways will come cap-in-hand for subsidies just like the others.

There is an additional problem. The Railways Minister only cares about West Bengal and her eyes as well as her policies are fixed firmly on the next election there. So,she has just promoted Bengal projects. That also is par for the course. Lalu Yadav only cared for Bihar though Nitish Kumar before him was better (and did much of the constructive work in that Ministry for which Laluji got the credit). But its on the Naxalite problem where I wonder if the Congress knows what it is doing just to keep Mamata Banerjee on their side. There are some clear danger signs here.

In most internal identity oriented movementsbe it in Punjab,Assam or Mizoramthe Government of India has always displayed a dual approach. Resist any compromise with Indias integrity and sovereignty regardless of the sentimental arguments advanced. There has also been a willingness to include the dissidents into the democratic framework as long as they will play by the electoral rules. In this struggle,there is no question that the Naxalites are willing to play according to electoral rules. They are not fighting for a certain identity or a territory. They are fighting to replace the Government of India.

So I fear a drift into a long compromise with the Naxalites if only to keep West Bengal firm on its anti-CPM path and to let the Trinamool Congress-Congress win the election. My enemys enemy is my friend may be a good Machiavellian or even Chanakyan strategy but it is deeply dangerous. There is nothing romantic about the Naxals as there has never been about any Leninist insurgency anywhere in the world. Its aim is power and it is willing to exploit any poor community to win power. There are some NGOs who want to relive the dreams of a Red Revolution but there is no need to be blackmailed by them.

There are some things more important than winning the next election in West Bengal even though the UPA may savour the revenge on CPM for its abandonment on the nuclear deal.

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