B L Saraf
Electioneering for the 15th Lok Sabha is slowly but surely on. Though the pitch is still not feverish , yet the power seekers and the power brokers, in Delhi and provincial capitals, see a job on their hands. Permutations and combinations are being worked out to out manoeuvre one another and hijack the mandate. As the polling date approaches most of the countrymen look forward to the results with a hope . They want present Government to go, after what they have gone through the last five years of the UPA-2 rule. Physical security concerns, particularly of the womenfolk, the national security scenario, crippling high prices of the essentials, loss of jobs and general mood of despondency have demoralised so many. Therefore, some hope that spring will bloom on the dawn of 16th May 2014when a new government at the Centre will take place. However , some are fearful of the events which may unfold post May 2014; on the assumption that no Political party will reach the coveted number of 272 so as to form a stable Government in Delhi . They foresee political and administrative chaos on the horizon . The brazen exhibition of inflated egos , disproportionate political ambitions and the tantrums of the motley crowd of political mavericks and the regional satraps , which will be in display in good measure as soon as the election results are out and they gather in the Capitol, are enough to shake faith, even , of a diehard optimist . It will be a nightmare for the person who has followed the contemporary Indian political scene.
In the background of the ensuing elections, feelings of hope and despair , simultaneously, enter the thoughts of a common man . It is a forgone conclusion that no single political party or a formation will cross the threshold of 272 in the coming LokSabha , necessary to ascend the Delhi throne. So , the nation is for another coalition drama. Past experience informs us that it won’t be a pleasant one. But then looking back to the Congress governments from 1947 to 1967, coalition of varied political views, in the same party , is quite visible . On one side we had certain political and economic policy of Jawaharlal Nehru, Moulana Azad, Rafi Ahmad Ansari , Raja ji , Krishna Menon and some others , whileas on the other side there were men like Sardar Patel, Rajindra Prassad, K M Munshi, Parshotam Dass Tandon and others who had serious differences with some of the Nehru’s policies. Then a third group of equally well-meaning persons co-existed in the grand old party. To name few of them , Jay PrakashNarraian, Acharya Narendra Dev, Ram Monohar Lohia, Ashok Mehta should suffice . Babu Jagjiwan Ram represented the caste element. All cohabited together under the broad cover of a political organisation called All India Congress Party. Similarly, the Party had men of extreme probity and some who had no hard moral scruples.
Year 1967 saw fragmentation of the Congress party into the various factions , on the lines held by the members of the party who had a different vision from that of Nehru and others.Thus started the coalition era of Governments. U P Government ofSumyukthVidyak Dal ( S M D ) was first of its kind . We witnessed a strange communion of Jan Sangh (now B J P) the “communalists”, ” socialists ” “secularists” , “progressives” and the “reactionaries” to form the S M D Government, led by Ch Charan Singh who had just defected from the Congress Party and was euphemistically later called Ch Chair Sigh. Since then , governments at the Centre and the States happen to go on in the coalition mode. Barring few hiccups, the experiment has not totally failed us. Progress on certain matters may have lagged behind. But the institutional success has always been on the forward mode . Because , fundamentals of the governance and the principal policy indicators are well and truly on the Auto Pilot . Even in the coalition government, the leading party could manage to push through its manifesto if it happened to be in the national interest. NDA government made both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha sit together ,in 2001 , to pass through the POTO legislation , much against the wishes of some of its constituents. UPA -1 managed to get through the Nuclear deal with the U SA despite stiff opposition of its main supporter – the Communists . Passage of Telangana Act is the recent example in this regard.
The situation isn’t so dismal if the evolving nature of Indian federal structure is any indication. India is a Union of federating units – called the states. In practice that translates into a coalition of diverse geo- political formulations. Our founding fathers had the vision to prescribe federalism for nation building. That principle presupposes a coalition of diverse forces for all inclusive governance.
There is a brighter side to the picture also ; that coalition pressure (Dharma) is in itself sufficient to pull back a hard-line ruler of the country from the brink should he / she be in an adventurous mode . It has a great balancing value. Rather than feeling gloomy on the unfolding political events and describing the election result as a fractured mandate, it would be very comforting if one has to see the results as a vote for the union of varying interests to see India as a stable, well integrated and a welfare state where every individual’s interest is looked after well. The unsavoury spectacle of horse trading, Aaya Rams and Gya Rams could be accounted for as a onetime collateral damage.
(The author is former Principal District & Sessions Judge)
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