The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Long delayed justice

IT has been all quiet on the Punjab front for several years now. Touch wood, as English-educated superstitious persons are wont to say. But Union Home Ministry is not aware of this and Mr L.K. Advani says he will think of freeing all those from Punjab in prison under TADA. Not all, though. Only those against whom there is no charge. It will be very embarrassing to ask how a system can detain innocent persons (that is what “facing no charge” means) and for long years, that too after their state has returned to normalcy. The Home Minister’s move is welcome although he has not given any figures. An earlier report put the number of TADA arrests from Punjab alone at 15,269, the biggest lot among the 75,000 or more held under the draconian law. The release of some top leaders of the Hurriyat Conference, he says, has encouraged the government to examine similar cases from Punjab. It seems that the government was pleased with itself for opening the prison gates and allowing people to breathe free once again. It wants to give itself a second pleasurable experience. It should not stop at that. Barring those from Assam and Kashmir (where the situation is difficult) every state has a few TADA detenus and fairplay demands that they should be sent home immediately.

The Home Minister has not hinted at the causes of this change of heart. Referring to the Hurriyat example will lead to a similar question: why were they freed? Perhaps he does not have a compelling reason. But the Union Law Ministry has. From its point of view, TADA has been an unmitigated disaster. Its role in curbing, much less crushing, terrorism is questionable. It perverted the concept of rule of law into rule by law and in this case, a very harsh law. Convictions under TADA border on the scandalous. For long years it was about 1.5 per cent of the cases brought to trial and nearly all ended in acquittal. Only about 35 per cent of the cases tried could be completed and the rest are pending. Two judgements by the Supreme Court reflect its view of the law. In one case some years ago it blunted the sharp provisions in Section 5 to water down the unbridled powers of the police. More recently, it threw out the TADA convictions of the 26 who stood trial in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case while upholding the death sentence on four of them. TADA has lapsed in 1995 after a decade-long reign of terror. Right now efforts are on to refashion it under a new name. While the Home Ministry is at the job of reviewing the cases of Punjab detenus, it should enlarge the scope and find out if a TADA-like law is really useful, has it ever been useful. Tamil Nadu enacted its own version after the Coimbatore killings but dropped it in the face of severe criticism. The textile city is still quiet, and without POTA. There is a lesson in this.

Lesson from the fallen bus

The Punjab Roadways bus accident on May 14 in which at least 40 persons lost their lives near Ropar is just a link in the large chain of such mishaps in the state with worn-out or uncared for vehicles. The Amritsar-bound vehicle had left the Chandigarh Inter-state Bus Terminus (ISBT) at 10.10 a.m. with 11 passengers. More persons boarded it at Mohali, Kharar, Kurali and Ropar, close to the tragic destination. The cause of the accident is said to be a tyre-burst on a bridge. The bus fell into the Sirhind canal. Apparently, after a front tyre-burst, the driver would not have been in control of the large automobile. The railings gave way and the bus fell into the canal from a height of 25 feet. The canal was flowing at its maximum capacity of 9,200 cusecs. No one expects to find many survivor after such a plunge. The accident brings to mind several tragic happenings of its kind. On January 9, four persons died when a Maruti car fell into the Bhakhra main canal near Khanauri town in Sangrur district. The cause was said to be an accidental fall into the canal. The tragedy was attributed to human failure. January 29: Six schoolchildren were killed and four were injured when a van carrying them rammed into a passing train at an unmanned railway level-crossing at Theri in Amritsar district. The driver of the train applied the brakes instead of using the accelerator while trying to cross the railway track and the rear of the van got entangled with the engine of the rushing locomotive. Call it a combination of callousness and human failure, if you like. January 31: There was a "freak" accident on the National Highway No I. The site was 10 km away from Khanna in the direction of Ludhiana.

An inquiry was held and it was found that the driver of the sugar-laden truck was said to have become one of the victims while trying to save himself from another parked truck carrying iron rods. The final results of the probe are not known. There are many other instances. One blesses the year 1999 at the end of which it was stated rather curiously that "68 persons have died in road mishaps during the past 12 months". There are many ways to describe an accident. Bailey used to say that what men call accident was the doing of God's providence. But Rochefoucauld in his supreme wisdom stated: "No accidents are so unlucky, but that the wisemen draw some advantage from them; nor are there any so lucky but that the foolish men turn them to their own prejudices." The Sirhind canal mishap is a clear case of unwisdom and undiluted callousness. Maybe, the truth is not allowed to come out after the inquiry instituted by the Punjab Government yields a report. But one thing is clear. The burst tyre would tell much of the story and somebody would certainly be a real candidate for exemplary punishment.

Save Sapru House

The Human Resource Development Ministry should take seriously the reports of exploitation of employees by the management of the Indian Council for World Affairs, popularly known as Sapru House. There are complaints that ever since the management of Sapru House changed hands in the mid-eighties the once prestigious institution has gone to seed. Recently the Urban Development Ministry had raised objections regarding the misuse of the premises for purposes other than ordained in the charter of the ICWA. According to an ICWA Employees' Trade Union spokesman, "workers are paid such low salaries that they are unable to look after their families. The average monthly income of an employee is around Rs 1,800 a month". Employees' representatives have written to the Prime Minister seeking his personal intervention for resurrecting Sapru House for the purpose for which it was established. They have also met the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr Brajesh Misra, who has not done much to help them except express interest in their grievances. The head of the current team of administrators was the President of the Delhi University Students' Union in the mid-sixties and later became an active member of the Youth Congress. He was neither known for his academic achievements or understanding of international affairs to explain his control over Sapru House. Under-paying workers is just one aspect of the story of decline of Sapru House as a centre of academic excellence. It was the hub of intellectual activity in Delhi before India International Centre and Habitat Centre became more popular with the seekers of knowledge. ICWA had a well-stocked library and reference section for meeting the diverse needs of scholars and academics.

How the management of the council fell into undeserving hands can only be explained by studying the political culture of the period when debates and discussions on global issues were made to give way to the staging of repulsive, ribald and raunchy Punjabi plays. The title of a recent play staged at Sapru House "Kuri Jawan, Mohalla Pareshan" was yet another unsubtle attempt to change the profile of visitors to the ICWA. Of course the complaint that at least four employees have died in the past few months because of the refusal of the management to give them loan or advance for medical treatment reflects the callousness of those who have converted Sapru House into a personal fiefdom. The fact that an amount of Rs 3,800 is the highest salary drawn by an employee at the ICWA too needs to be investigated and set right. However, the larger objective of the HRD Ministry should be to restore to Sapru House the status it once enjoyed as a centre of academic discussion and debate of the highest order on world affairs.

MPs PROTECTING OWN INTERESTS
Who cares for people’s problems?
by Poonam I. Kaushish

TIGHTEN the money belt is the mantra of the NDA government. We have to cut expenditure. We can’t afford subsidies any longer. There are no free lunches in life. Sound economic sense, indeed!

The government is anti-poor. People are starving. They have no water to drink. Dead bodies are multiplying daily. Restore subsidies, scream our “jan sevaks”. Concerns, worthy of applause.

Juxtapose this against the following: “Increase in our salaries and allowances. So also certain other facilities, more electricity, more telephone calls, more air travel, etc. Also, allow former MPs of the prematurely dissolved Lok Sabhas the balance of free telephone calls, etc.” Chorus indeed by the present and former Rt Hon’ bles. But for what?

How does one describe the budget session of the 13th Lok Sabha at its fag-end? Which exposed the Jekyl and Hyde faces of our “netagan”. Clearly, tokenism at one end and smugly increased salaries and allowances of MPs and pensions of ex-MPs at the other. Wherein the voice of the masses has turned into an invoice for themselves. Why should one worry about mundane matters of drought, price rise, when newer goodies such as a five-star watering hole (a revamped Constitution Club) and government accommodation for senior ex-MPs send pulses racing.

Either way, the great tragedy is that the very protectors of this high temple of democracy may end up as its destroyers. It is irrelevant as to who cast the first stone. The onus lies on all sides of Parliament. True, the government is first to blame. Despite their feigned indignation that Parliament was being prevented from functioning, the rulers ended up with inflicting on our democracy greater damage than the one caused even by the destruction of the structure at Ayodhya. In the words of the veteran CPI leader Indrajit Gupta: “If this trend continues, it will ruin Parliament totally.”

True, when the budget session began on February 23 last, many expected it to be explosive. The Opposition was ready with a blizzard of issues to storm the Treasury Benches. First was the Gujarat order to saffronise the state, the price rise, the subsidies, Kashmir, hijacking, drought, etc. Issues of national import meriting serious debate and discussion. Instead we were treated to noisy and uncalled for adjournments. Each side challenging the other’s lung-power. Out-shouting and out-scoring each other. Repeatedly walking into the well of the two Houses. Brazenly holding the country to ransom to make the headlines in the next day’s newspapers.

Exposing how “powerless” Parliament has become in stemming the mounting rot. Whereby a minority can shamelessly abuse its muscle-power and a majority its raucous lung-power to achieve their respective goals. In the first case, stonewall. In the second, stall. Both believe that their tactics are a way of securing their way and say. Either way it paralyses Parliament with the Presiding Officers sitting as “mute, helpless spectators” to the sordid happenings.

It was the same story when it came to the debate on the Finance Bill on May 4 last. The near-vacant Opposition Benches and partially-full Treasury Benches stood testimony to the importance given to financial matters. Arguably, why should our pampered Hon’bles lose their sleep? After all, it is only the common man who has to bear the brunt of rising prices and inflation. Not those who thrive on subsidies. Themselves, of course. When the membership of Parliament has become an end in itself — a passport to influence and affluence. Why bother about the mundane business of the House. By thumbing their nose at their greatest power over the Treasury, the House guillotined as never before the demands of grants of all the ministries barring three.

Of the 56 Bills (47 new and nine carried forward from the winter session) which needed to be passed and approved, most of the major ones never saw the light of day. Namely the Uttar Pradesh (Reorganisation) Bill, the Bihar (Reorganisation) Bill, the Madhya Pradesh (Reorganisation) Bill, the Lokpal Bill, the Anti-Corruption and election Law (Amendment) Bill, and the freedom of Information Bill. Worse, the Central Vigilance Commission Bill, which was introduced in the winter session and sent to the Joint Committee was not discussed. Neither was the Women’s Reservation Bill, as promised by Prime Minister Vajpayee himself prior to the session. Alas, even zero hour has been reduced to a discussion period under Rule 377. The less said about the afternoon sessions the better. Where times without number both Houses did not have the requisite quorum. Even the few MPs present were busy catching up on sleep.

If one had hoped that the period of “recess” would be gainfully employed by the Standing Committees of Parliament on various ministries, one was sadly mistaken. Instead, the MPs cutting across party lines, mainly applied their minds to forging new power alignments or realignments to destabilise the present BJP-led ruling coalition. In the process, no committee was taken seriously.

Yet, at the end of it all the BJP-led government heaves a sigh of relief. the Opposition glows in the aftermath of muscle-flexing. The Congress feels outwitted and accuses the BJP of turning Parliament into an arena to massage their much bruised egos. Reflecting the abysmal depths to which politics has sunk in our country. All that transpired till date — unabashed opportunism — will be remembered as the lowest denominator in parliamentary democracy, when national interests were mindlessly sacrificed at the altar of power.

Much of the trouble in the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha stems from the desire of the Opposition to catch the headlines by raising “hot” issues. Members are today showing less and less interest in their main job: law-making. the maximum time is spent on “other-matters” or unlisted issues. What is more, the duration of Parliament sessions has declined from an average of 100 days a year to 75. True, what is important is not the total length of time that Parliament meets, but the use to which it is put. But if the purpose is drowned by lungpower, what’s the use.

“We are all partners in this gigantic scam”, remarked a senior MP, “the bottomline for me is how to retain the ministerial bungalow allotted to me when I was a minister. I have got used to it along with the other trappings of power.” Besides housing, an MP can make one lakh free telephone calls annually, virtually enjoy free electricity and water (25,000 units and 2,000 kilolitres per year) and medical expenses for him and his family. He is entitled to one first class AC railway travel for himself and his “companion”, 28 free single air journeys anywhere in the country, 15 telephone connections and 100 gas connections per year. Add to this a salary of Rs 4,000 per month, a daily allowance of Rs 400 and a constituency allowance of Rs 3,000 per month. This roughly adds up to a staggering figure of about Rs 1 lakh per month.

The MPs now also want the allowance for secretarial service increased to Rs 4,000 per month, 30 air journeys (with a companion or the spouse) a year, and AC first class rail journey for the companion also. Full pension for a term irrespective of its duration. Is all this justifiable when MPs hardly take their basic responsibilities seriously, when demands for grants are guillotined en masse, the Constitution amended without any serious discussion and Parliament adjourned at the drop of a hat?

One would have imagined that our MPs would relate themselves to the conditions prevailing in the country. Where, admittedly, 60 per cent of the people still live below the poverty line. However, one gets the uncomfortable feeling that our parliamentarians want to distance themselves from the common masses. Tragically, our MPs continue to suffer from the Oliver syndrome — always asking for more.

Where do we go from here? How does one restore a strong sense of its own authority to Parliament. One, the government should fix the sittings of Parliament in advance for the whole year. Two, Parliament should be in session for at least 26 weeks in a year without any of its sitting hours being curtailed. Three, all debates should be structured with MPs strictly adhering to the rule book.

Another possibility could be the time-sharing of the hours for which Parliament meets, between the Treasury Benches and the Opposition. The Lok Sabha, for instance, normally meets for 35 hours in a five-day week from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. These hours could be divided equitably between the government and the Opposition. The government getting 20 hours and the Opposition 15. This would give the government four hours for official business every day and the Opposition two hours, in addition to question hour.

Interestingly, a formula for dividing time almost went through during Indira Gandhi’s time in 1974 when the Opposition was blocking business and the government was anxious to get on with the job. But the idea fell through when the Opposition insisted on getting one more hour.

In sum, as the thirteenth Lok Sabha continues to work, it is high time we gave serious thought to rectifying the flaws in our democratic system and to urgently working for a change. The MPs need to honestly search their souls. Are they fit to lead? For how long can we continue to subsidise mediocrity? For how long can we afford to foot the bill?

Face to face with drought
by Trilochan Singh Trewn

THOSE were my school days in Banswara southern Rajasthan, where my father was serving as the Chief Medical Officer years ago. During early April itself rumours started emanating from the villages that due to sustained lack of rains for almost a year there was complete failure of corn and gram crop in the entire state, including the adjoining states of Pratapgarh and Dungarpur. His Highness Prithvi Singh Ji Maharaj conferred with the chieftains of tehsils in the state and informed the agent to the Governor-General, resident at Ajmer accordingly it was a small state and its resources to provide relief in the form of fodder, foodgrain or augmentation of water supply were severely limited. There was no canal water, tubewells or even water tank facilities in any of the villages and the only two crops entirely depended upon the vagaries of normal rain water as the region was partially hilly and rocky.

His Highness deputed a team to survey the situation as soon the alarming reports of complete failure of crops and destruction of cattle reached him. He cancelled his scheduled trip to Mumbai. The survey team noticed that all fields in the villages were dry, parched and had no greenery or leaf on any of the trees, including the mahuwa trees. No animals, cattle or even a dog was visible in the first two villages which the team visited.

The Maharaval of Khandu, a young, brave, outspoken and energetic chieftain of Khandu tehsil, was a trusted friend of His Highness and was one of the members of the relief survey team visiting the villages to assess the extent of disaster and the immediate remedial measures required.

There was no fodder, foodgrain in shops or storage water. Water and grain had to be brought from miles. Some village tanks or bawris had muddy water not suitable even for cattle. Streams and rivulets were all dry. Shri Panna Lal was president of the local Gandhi Sewa Samiti and sported khadi clothes. He did everything possible to generate public awareness towards the impending disaster and how to handle it. He was also a member of the relief survey team. As the state continued to reel under severe drought the ground situation in villages grew pathetic. There were no predictions from the meteorological department or warning from the research centre for mathematical modelling and computer stimulations for the hapless people in those days.

When Shri Panna Lal entered four of the houses of a Bheel village he found them with no clothes, no lamps, no utensils or any other household item except an earthen deep tawa, some loose common salt and a partially used matchbox — total value not more than two rupees during those days. There could not be deeper depths of poverty than this. The woman had mostly a dusty plain white old and worn dhoti, choli and one undergarment on them. They had no jewellery, no shoes and no spare set of clothes. The constant wait for water and rains, perhaps, left them with no time or thought for bath. There was no sign of any soap of any type anywhere. The smell of human sweat was all pervading. The men and the boys were also mostly naked except for a dusty old white loincloth. They wore no shoes or chappals. It was difficult to fathom as to when they washed their meagre items of clothing, with no questions asked. Misery and penury were written large on the hungry and thirsty faces. Kids below five years of age were seen roaming about naked and milled around the visitors in expectation. There was no dispensary in the area. Those who could afford to migrate had already done so to the nearby districts of Gujarat as the villages near Dohad as well as Panchmahal district were still not so badly affected by paucity of water.

The survey team had taken some small bags of maize flour and tiny packets of milk powder for distribution to the most needy. The blank and sunken eyes of babies in arms revealed that none of them had seen any milk for months. Whatever brass jewellery the Bheel women had on their legs and forearms had already been sold away. All villagers wanted to know whether they could get any food or employment at Banswara.

Back in Banswara the talk of the town was the weather forecast. Even a scant sign of clouds on the horizon used to bring cheer and hope while the monsoon was still a month away. Eventually an emergency meeting of the relief committee attended by His Highness, the young Maharawal of Khandu and Shri Panna Lal came out with the following scheme of disaster management:-

(a) A spare 80-yard narrow width Bandhni dyed turban used by the Maharawal of Khandu as well as his historic sword to be auctioned publicly. The proceeds to be credited to the famine relief fund. Response from the local Marwari community was spontaneous.

(b) All schools to be closed and to be used as godowns for fodder, grains and small mobile dispensing units. My father was asked to arrange for emergency care of cholera, dehydration and other intestine related cases with whatever resources were available. Health staff with mobile dispensing kits to visit each village.

(c) All costly imported dogs in the palace and the horses which were signs of ostentatious and luxurious living to be given away by the Maharaja. There were no takers.

(d) Food for work programme to begin immediately with digging of large water tanks (talabs) in each village.

(e) The Maharani decided not to celebrate her annual birthday due in May. No sweets distribution and no illumination of the palace.

(f) Voluntary organisations to make door to door collection of atta/grains and deposit same daily in the school godowns.

The above steps had a very encouraging effect on the morale of the suffering public. The coming month was very agonising and painful period. Daily prayers were held to invoke mercy of Lord Varuna. On June 6, heavens smiled and Banswara had its first shower after a year of clear skies — heralding advent of the monsoon.

Realpolitik
by P. Raman
Congress at cross-roads

EVENTS IN the past few weeks have shown that the crises that have gripped the Congress is far more acute than earlier presumed. Every decision is bogged down by sharp controversy within the party. Different sections at the top level are pulling the party in different directions. This is reflected even on the floor of Parliament where utter disarray reigned supreme. The inept handling of the PCC affairs has cost the party heavily in states like Haryana, Orissa and West Bengal.

Basically, the Sonia Congress suffers from two psychological disorders.

One, that of an old royal doyen still dreaming of recovering his forefathers’ glory. After having enjoyed power so long, leaders find it difficult to adjust themselves to being in the Opposition. It is the first time that the Congress has been out of power consecutively for four years and losing three general elections at a stretch. New areas are being added to the list of states where the Congress has been marginalised. The disillusionment is acute in states where the party stands no hope of regaining power in the near future. But for the lack of political space in other parties, there might have been a mass exodus in certain states.

Many Congress leaders, especially at the centre, still refuse to reconcile themselves to the prospects of being in the opposition for a long time to come. The whole theory of behaving as a “responsible” Opposition — extending support to the government on agreeable issues and not behaving as a fighting adversary — has been an old Congress strategy to suit the short-term stints of power loss. This gave the party an image of reasonableness and acceptability which had helped it regain the lost support in the subsequent elections. Pranab Mukherjee is in the forefront of those who still nurse the visions of an early return to power.

But the protagonists of this theory hardly realise that unlike the earlier non-Congress alternatives at the centre, the Vajpayee dispensation shows no signs of any early collapse. The BJP’s decision to park itself with the US camp has more to do with internal politics than foreign policy. This ensures the patronage of both the foreign and Indian business to the government – something which is necessary for the survival of any regime in this unipolar world. The Congress is yet to draw the right conclusions from this. The old ruling party is no more the preferred choice for business patronage. This alone ensures the Vajpayee regime’s longivity. Here is where the whole Pranab doctrine collapses.

Second, the Congress if afflicted by both policy confusion and organisational blunders. The tussles over the approach to the government have taken an ugly turn on issues like the nuclear policy, economic programmes and the question of converting the party into a fighting outfit. At times the two sides tried to outwit each other by washing the dirty linen in public. In Parliament, Vajpayee himself teased the Congress over its nuclear policy. Still worse, this constant clash of ideas and moves to put spoke in any programmes to reactivate the organisation have led to a virtual paralysis of the Congress.

A few weeks back, there was a proposal for a massive statewise campaign against the price raise on kerosene, gas and PDS items and cut in subsidies. The idea was to energise the organisation even while trying to restore the party’s pro-poor image of the Indira days. But the pro-globalisation lobby scuttled it on the ground that the Congress could not condemn the measures taken under its own policies in early ’90s. Curiously, even those with royal background – Madhavrao Scindia and Digvijay Singh – and those with business background – Kamal Nath – are firm advocates of championing the cause of the weaker sections. Some in the Congress had even argued in favour of coordinating with the trade unions on the Bharat bandh.

The rationale of Pranab Mukherjee’s ‘no-coalition’ doctrine also stems from the same psychological disorder. It is argued that since the coalitions are purely transient and the Congress is the ‘natural’ ruling party, it should stick to its go-it-alone policy. This thesis, otherwise called ‘Pachmarhi declaration’, failed to take into account the reality of coalitions in the present Indian politics and the BJP’s proven ability to sustain the NDA rule. It had also ignored the complexities of emerging provincial politics. As a result, months after the Mukherjee doctrine was adopted, the party was forced to roll it back in Bihar and Maharashtra.

All such fiasco apart, both friends and foes of the Congress should realise that Sonia Gandhi’s leadership is not a factor in the entire tussle. Congress factions at the Centre or in the states have never raised Sonia Gandhi’s leadership as an issue. On the other, they all swear their loyalty to her even while assailing the rival factions. Every one in the Congress is aware of the ‘cosmic truth’ that if the Congress has to survive, it could only be under Sonia – whether one likes it or not, whether it is authoritarian or one-leader hegemony or dynastic rule of sycophancy.

In any case, since the ’70s, Congressmen had never bothered about such sentiments so long as the leader could deliver the goods – vote and power. Earlier some individual Congress leaders were a bit apologetic about the one-leader hegemony. Now the same sections have become bolder in the business of flattery. They verily argue that even the BJP – not to talk of every regional party – has made sycophancy and adherence to supremocracy as a basic political doctrine. But this sudden political respectability to authoritarianism has made her dynastic stigma less sinful. For Congress men, she is the only unifying force – again, whether we like it or not. While the Congress is rapidly moving towards the brink, it is too naïve to write off it as a dead horse. Far from it. The Congress still remains the most widely distributed single political party. It is the ruling party or the main opposition on its own in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Assam. No other party can claim such a decisively uniform presence in such a large number of states. Ironically, in this era of unprincipled coalitions, such inherent strength itself has turned out to be the bane of the Congress. Its position as the main challenger in such a large number of states under a bipolar system, ipso facto makes it a Congress-centred politics. The very survival of the respective rival party in these states depended on anti-Congressism. This explains the big contemporary political riddle as to how anti-Congressism reigns supreme despite the steady decline of the Congress. As against these 14 solid domains of the Congress, the main ruling party at the Centre can claim a similar position only in half a dozen states.

This bipolar politics restricts the Congress chances of forging alliances with its own rivals at the centre. On the other, every non-Congress alternative at the Centre has been a united front of the anti-Congress state-level parties. The result has been a deep-rooted animosity towards state-level parties which together constitute a powerful solid block at the Centre. Pranab Mukherjee thesis and the Pachmarhi declaration have been a heady hangover of this outdated mindset. The tragedy of the Congress has been that even if it has now climbed down from its ivory tower under compulsions, it is yet to learn the preliminary lessons in public relations even with the non-antagonistic smaller parties.

“From the mid-90s, the BJP had realised that it could overcome its geographical limitations and vertical stagnation only by coopting and appropriating all those moth-eaten traits of the Congress. This ‘Congressisation’ process is still incomplete. Yet now it is the turn of the Congress to borrow the tricks of the trade from the BJP if it has to survive in this era of muddy politics. Under this new concept of political management, consistency and clarity of views are no more considered an asset. Instead, stand on emerging issues are left deliberately vague until it becomes clear which posture will bring maximum benefits and put the adversaries in disadvantage.

On the LTTE crisis, for instance, what is crucial is not India’s foreign policy interests but the impact of Tamil Nadu politics on the coalition. While in the opposition, the BJP strategy has been to pick holes in the government’s positions without specifying its own stand. It is easier for an opposition to repeatedly ask the government to clarify its position or seek more details rather than rushing to commit itself on issues. The whole idea is to ‘trap’ the government or get it on the wrong foot.

One may call it opportunistic. But a similar cultivated vagueness has become an effective political tool in dealing with the allies. The BJP tries to avert unnecessary confrontation with its existing allies or the alternatives in the same region. After all that has happened, the BJP is still cautious not to unnecessarily antagonise Jayalalitha. The party may need her help as an alternative to the DMK. Watch the finesse with which it is dealing with Gurcharan Singh Tohra in the changing political scenario in Punjab. In Haryana, if Chautala’s goodwill with the people erodes, the BJP can easily once again opt for Bansi Lal.

So far, Sonia Gandhi has not taken sides in this bitter war of attrition among her senior colleagues. True, as an inexperienced politician, she herself – unlike Indira Gandhi – has no courage to take a bold stand. But by this, she has also been carefully avoiding another division in her party. Her real dilemma is that the longer she leaves the party at the cross roads, the quicker will be its decline. The basic lesson of contemporary realpolitik has been that no opposition party worth the name can survive without mounting an allout fight against the policies of the ruling party.