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While
the Congress may live to fight another day... The Third Front is
dead
Later
today — the tenth of May — voters in several states shall
march to the booths to elect their representatives. I have no fresh
insight to offer on the outcome; I agree with the conventional wisdom
that the Left Front shall return to power in Kolkata (albeit with
a reduced majority) and that it is a close race in Tamil Nadu (but
with the arithmetic giving the Jayalalitha group an edge). As for
Kerala, I pray that E.K. Nayanar and his band end up in the dust
bin of history as they deserve. (Sorry, I cannot be dispassionate
about my home state.) This May, however, also marks the tenth anniversary
and the fifth anniversary of two major events in Indian politics,
milestones that have perhaps been ignored thanks to the elections.
So what are these?
The
first was the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur. The
immediate consequence was a sympathy wave which swept the Congress
to power, resulting in the institutionalisation of corruption during
the Narasimha Rao regime. But, with the wisdom of hindsight, that
was not the major consequence.
The
real tragedy was that Rajiv Gandhi never got a chance to prove what
kind of a prime minister he could be. You have to remember that
he had enjoyed a remarkably easy ride up to 1989. He became, in
quick succession, the Member of Parliament from Amethi, general-secretary
of the Congress, and then prime minister. He was absolutely callow
when that last, supreme, responsibility was thrust upon him. In
1989, defeat in the ninth General Election forced Rajiv Gandhi to
undergo some introspection.
Several
people, men whose judgment I respect, have told me that the late
prime minister began coming to grips with the complexity of India
only after losing power. Assuming that the Congress came back to
power in 1991, I believe he would have done a far better job than
Narasimha Rao. If nothing else, Rajiv Gandhi seemed to genuinely
believe in
economic
reform, where Rao’s ministers seemed to be going through the
motions.
Thus,
Rajiv Gandhi is my candidate for ‘the best prime minister we
never had’. (For obvious reasons, I am not even considering
anyone who is still active in politics.) The second tragedy of Indian
politics, the one that took place almost exactly five years ago,
was the creation of that wretched entity called the Third Front.
The Narasimha Rao years made corruption commonplace; what would
be the chief charge of the Third Front era? To my mind, it would
be the legitimisation of irresponsibility.
The
Third Front took power without receiving a mandate. The constituents
of the United Front knew that they were not responsible to Parliament
and the people, and therefore surrendered any responsibility for
Parliament and people. We saw the marvellous spectacle of a prime
minister being heckled by his own colleagues in the House. We saw
ministries toppled without a reason being offered, and those same
regimes being restored in the space of a fortnight. We saw a prime
minister cheerfully accepting the job of burdening his successors
with the Fifth Pay Commission without bothering to explain how his
generosity could be borne by the taxpayers. (Us!)
The
Left Front in general, and the CPI(M) in particular, were key players
in this era of irresponsiblity and profligacy. Harkishen Singh Surjeet
was the “Chanakya” of the Third Front. (I consider this
an insult to a great patriot of ancient India!) Jyoti Basu was,
on at least three occasions, a strong candidate for the prime ministership.
The CPI(M) was the cement that held the United Front together.
However, that is enough about the past. The true question is: has
anyone learned the lessons which history could teach us?
I wonder
if the Congress ‘High Command’ would dare to emulate Rajiv
Gandhi. He had the courage to pack off the coterie that had surrounded
him, cutting him off from the Indian people at large. Instead of
sitting passively at home, he went out and took the effort to meet
people. Most impressive of all, he admitted that mistakes had been
made, and that he would make an effort not to repeat them.
Do you have any idea how unusual it is for a politician to admit
his errors? Not just in the Congress, but in other parties. (Or
even in other countries!)
Admission of error is something which the Marxists will never accept.
Some ideologues — Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Sitaram Yechury
for instance — have already proclaimed that the result of the
current polls will mark the resurgence of the Third Front. If we
believe them, then we, the voters, deserve all that we get.
Mercifully, I think the electorate is smarter than the likes of
Surjeet and Yechury would like to believe. (Both, of course, don’t
bother to stand for election themselves, preferring closed-door
manoeuvres.) And the manifest desires of the voters at large have
written a ‘finis’ to the farce called the Third Front.
Where are the men and the parties who once constituted the United
Front? The DMK, the Telugu Desam, the Assam Gana Parishad, and vast
chunks of the old Janata Dal are partners of the Bharatiya Janata
Party. Jayalalitha, a late entrant to the Third Front in 1999, is
an ally of the Congress. Even Mulayam Singh Yadav is in no hurry
to join hands with the CPI(M), the party that damned him for ‘‘betraying
secularism’’ for not supporting the Congress.
You
will not find the old men in the CPI(M) accepting these truths.
(Actually, even the middle-aged ones will not do so!) I am glad
of that. In fact, we should all be happy that the Marxists, with
all their pernicious doctrines, are driving into a blind alley.
The more they concentrate on chasing a chimera, the less time they
will have to plague India.
So
much for the CPI(M), has the Congress learned the lessons which
cost Rajiv Gandhi his office? Will Sonia Gandhi have the guts to
cast off the political advisors who would prefer to cocoon her?
Or will she allow easy victories in Kerala and, possibly, Assam
to blind her to reality? (In both states, I sense an anti-incumbency
factor rather than any pro-Congress sentiment.)
However,
the Congress has the potential to survive to fight another day.
The Third Front, happily, is already dead — and these polls
should serve as the perfect funeral.
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