By Chiranjib Haldar
In the prelude to the 1989 general elections, Congress-sponsored billboards startled pedestrians with a query: How many prime ministers will a country have? The nation went berserk with the Bofors controversy, with V P Singh’s Janata Dal spearheading the anti-Congress front and an ebullient Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cobbling in tandem to defeat the Rajiv Gandhi regime. More than three decades later, the wheel has come full circle. Only the crusaders have changed. The once hyped supplicant to power, the morose multi-party coalition that called itself INDIA has been hidden quite unlamented. No one is shedding tears on its probable demise in a solitary rite. As Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti put up a sombre note ‘Wind it up. It has no leader, it has no meetings and it doesn’t seem to be working, let’s call it off and move on.’
Instead of a shot in the arm for an anti-BJP front in the offing, this alliance may have been a blessing in disguise. It has actually strengthened the BJP-led NDA regime with a seeming coalition of regional satraps having bloated further. A shrinking INDIA front is actually a boon for the saffron brigade. For the grand old dame of Indian polity, the Congress, actively nurturing the opposition jamboree seems to be of remote concern. In the aftermath of the recent assembly poll reverses and the palpable reluctance of the Congress to even convene a course correction dialogue, the INDIA grouping has been rendered an untenable prospect. The more fractured the opposition becomes at a pan-India level with multiple aspirants for the coveted top slot often at loggerheads, the easier it will be for the BJP to beat anti-incumbency and stride back to power.
Despite all its camaraderie on display intermittently in front of television cameras at every file photo, the alliance resembles a cabal of warring chieftains, each of whom controls their regional fiefdoms. Even if this bandwagon has a downcast Congress leadership in it, the party needs to be the fulcrum for any ouster of the BJP dispensation from power and not just be a constituent in the coalition. As history has shown, any formation without the Congress at its helm may be disastrous and temporary. And the concept of a non-Congress, non-BJP Third Front has been a mirage for long, as past experiments with the United Front have proven. The Congress has chosen to play hardball and in the process opened up the fissures within the INDIA alliance.
Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Tejashwi Yadav’s death knell on the INDIA bloc has widened faultlines in the opposition alliance. Nothing could be more cryptic than the RJD leader’s retort: ‘INDIA was formed just for the Lok Sabha elections and to stop the victory chariot of the BJP. It has no significance now. This is why the bickering between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the Delhi Assembly date polls is not unexpected’. It is as if the coalition was formed with an expiry date. Politically diverse parties stuck by ideological glue to topple any BJP formation are now tottering on the verge of disintegration. The nomadic state of the alliance, the Congress’s aversion to billeting its allies in the Haryana assembly polls and its position as a contender to AAP in Delhi, highlight the intrinsic flaws within this arrangement. Indian politics is on an implosive path and the INDIA alliance has reached an inflection point as is visible.The Trinamool Congress has been pitching for Mamata Banerjee to take over reins of the INDIA alliance. Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has given a clarion call to oust the Congress party from the INDIA bloc. AAP has got a shot in the arm with the unflinching support of the TMC, Samajwadi Party and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena. The INDIA allies may rally behind the once anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal but Congress leaders deny ambiguity within the party on how far to go against AAP. The moot question remains. If the INDIA political conglomerate is disintegrating, will Congress take the blame for this debacle? Most Congress watchers feel there has hardly been any introspection in the party. Maybe it is time for the diehard party apparatchiks and the coterie to step back and let the next generation of leaders flower within the party. Keeping the mantle intact in a sledgehammer manner does not augur well for the Congress party. For the nation’s political future, the party mandarins and the first family have to ensure that the deep rooted notion of India’s constitutionalism marches forward.
(The writer is a commentator on politics and society and has been contributing to premier publications for decades.)