National straw in Punjab wind

First of all, an apology and also an explanation of sorts for why National Interest has been off this page for so many Saturdays now. I have used many excuses for taking a break, and laziness has been among those. But, honestly, National Interest works when there is a complexity to address, a new spin, a different idea or an excuse to lock horns with another idea. Now nobody is arguing that India’s politics, society, governance, or even cinema and sports can ever run out of complexities. But there came a point towards the latter half of 2006 when many of the issues that drive our argumentative columnist seemed settled, one way or the other. Secular was good and successful, communal was bad, and vanquished. Reform and globalisation were great and the world was flat. The nuclear deal was in the bag and the peace process with Pakistan was on and everybody supported it. Bush was bad, the Iranians not perfect, but they had a point, the Israelis were incorrigible, and they all, in fact the entire world, loved and admired us. The economy was booming with growth red-hot, and our collective guilt over those getting left behind was solved by MPs cutting across party lines passing all kinds of bad laws, from rural employment guarantee to domestic violence to ensuring children look after their parents, and so on. I was half-expecting a law, any day, banning bad weather, poverty, all debt — including my housing loan — and, of course, Cricket defeats. In this perfect world, where political alliances had become ossified, and where newspapers, pink and white, mostly brought good news, the 14th Lok Sabha was well on its way to legislating a future for our grandchildren we had never dreamt of.

So what was left to argue with anybody about? Or, at least, that was my excuse for this sabbatical, and my reward, this very unfamiliar freedom from creative tension on Friday afternoons — and of course, from having the opinion page editor pacing up and down my corridor, reminding me of my very patchy record with deadlines.

So what changed now that persuaded me to give up that Friday afternoon freedom? It was change, first a whiff, then the real thing, in what had so far remained rather static national politics post-May ’04. And it wasn’t just who won Punjab and Uttarakhand.

Did you notice an unfamiliar figure in the Akali-BJP swearing-in celebrations? Inder Kumar Gujral. Okay, he, as a votary of Punjab, could justify being there. And the fact that his very amiable and urbane son, Naresh, has been helping and advising the Akalis can simply be explained away as adults being entitled to make their choices. But view this with what happened in Karnataka last year, with Gowda and his son joining hands with the BJP to form the Government there, and pushing the “secular” forces to the sidelines.

... contd.

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