|
|
My Word
The Left’s Plan-B
In case a snap poll becomes necessary!
by Rajinder Puri
The Left Front knows how to bark. Will it ever bite? Starting tomorrow
for a whole week it will launch a nationwide protest movement against
the government’s policies that created the price rise and public
hardship. If government policies are so bad why not withdraw support?
The Left leaders say they await the Congress response to their note of
dissent delivered in the last UPA coordination committee meeting. Only
if the government heeds them will they reconsider their stand.
But isn’t the government already heeding them? Mrs. Gandhi met with
senior party functionaries to defuse the price rise. She followed up by
meeting all Congress chief ministers for the same reason. The Prime
Minister discovered that economic reforms are benefiting only five per
cent of the population. He said India cannot blindly follow the west in
embracing globalization. This was a new tune from the PM! Petroleum
Minister Mr. Murli Deora once again wrote to all chief ministers urging
them to reduce sales tax on fuel to help contain price rise. What more
could the government immediately do to persuade the Left that its
complaints had registered?
And yet, the Left is launching its nationwide protest. Why? Is it merely
buying time? The price rise may not be the real reason for its protest.
It is evidently preparing a poll issue and cobbling together an
alliance, should circumstances compel a snap poll. The Left has
succeeded in roping in other regional parties including the TDP to join
this week’s protest. Until now the TDP was with BJP. What more can the
protest immediately extract from the government than it has already
done? Even with the best of intentions, how can the government improve
economic conditions in the short term? The Left leaders know this. Yet
they persist. They persist because they have to lay the foundation for a
contingency plan. They want to create favorable conditions in case they
need to pull down the UPA government. That is why the bluster.
There is a political grapevine. As word gets around, politicians know
from each other what’s going to happen. Perhaps that is why BSP leader
Miss Mayawati has repeatedly urged her workers to prepare not just for
the UP assembly poll but also for a mid-term general election? And
perhaps that is why Mr. VP Singh and a motley group of parties are
striving to help the Congress? They are not only isolating Mr. Mulayam
Singh for the UP poll. They have also announced their own nationwide
movement in favor of immediate Mandal reservations in all institutes of
higher learning and in private industry through a new Bill in the
forthcoming Parliament session. Mr. Singh wisely observed that while
parties divide people, movements unite them. The Congress itself does
not lag behind. The Minister for Social Justice, Ms. Meira Kumari, has
repeatedly demanded that reservation on basis of caste must be
introduced in all private industry. The minister’s proximity to Mrs.
Sonia Gandhi leaves little doubt about the inspiration of this demand.
Mr. VP Singh’s effort to help the Congress party after earlier bringing
down a Congress government is understandable. His unflinching loyalty to
the late Indira Gandhi, and the late Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency,
was marred only by misunderstanding arising from failure of
communication with the late Rajiv Gandhi. His sentiment for his parent
party must therefore be deep – which should make understandable his
possible desire to revive family links with the Congress.
In the midst of this turbulence, how could the DMK be left behind? With
16 Lok Sabha MPs of its own and 22 in its alliance, Mr. Karunanidhi
threatened to withdraw support from the UPA government. He was
protesting against the government’s decision to divest 10 percent of its
shares from the public sector Neyveli Lignite Corporation. After the DMK
announcement Mr. Sitaram Yechury gave gratuitous advice to the media. He
said DMK was merely playing safe coalition politics and there was no
danger of realignment of the government in the centre. If nothing else,
Mr. Yechury’s intervention did suggest close coordination between the
DMK and the Left Front. Just a week earlier Mr. Karunanidhi had softened
his stand on the same issue. Why the sudden switch and hardening of
stand? Meanwhile, the PMO spokesperson predictably and quickly announced
that all divestment decisions had been put on hold.
The government’s policy drift has been continuous. What, then, brought
about the critical change in the attitude of the UPA allies? The change
was brought about by something that none of these MPs cares to talk
about. CNN/IBN reported that President Kalam had decided not to sign the
Office of Profit Bill when Parliament sent it back to him without
amendment. The President, according to the news channel, had decided to
delay signing it. The news channel broadcast this news explicitly and
repeatedly. There was no contradiction from Rashtrapati Bhawan. And
there was complete silence over it among political parties. Legal
luminaries did descend before cameras to solemnly aver that by so doing
the President would violate the spirit of the Constitution. Others
recalled an earlier precedent when President Zail Singh had delayed
signing a Bill for so long that eventually Parliament abandoned it. My
own guess is that if the TV report is correct, the President would seek
reassurance from the Supreme Court or other legal authority before
signing the Bill. He would be justified in doing this. If the Bill
becomes Act it will almost certainly be challenged in the Supreme Court.
If once again, after the Bihar assembly dissolution fiasco, the
President is found to have signed a Bill declared unconstitutional, his
position would become untenable.
The bottom line is that every possibility exists of the Election
Commission unseating many honorable Members of Parliament before the new
proposed law to protect them takes effect. The politicians therefore
would closely watch developments on this front without uttering a word
of comment. When they are certain that they will be unseated, they could
topple the government to pre-empt their removal from parliament. Instead
of contesting over 80 by-elections why not go the whole hog? Voters
would not like to see MPs deciding to topple a government because they
have been unseated for illegally holding offices of profit. So, let
there be suitable poll issues! It is reservation in the case of the
Congress and Mr. VP Singh’s group. It is scrapping economic reforms in
the case of Left Front and DMK. Nothing may happen. The President and EC
may sort out the crisis. If they don’t, topple the government! Although
the final outcome may stun them.
July
12, 2006
Top |
My Word
The Week of July 9, 2006
The Left’s Plan-B: In case a snap poll becomes
necessary! by Rajinder Puri
Pakistan and North Korea: Rogue States
Brandishing Nuclear Weapons
and Ballistic Missiles by Dr. Subhash Kapila
Nuclear Pacts, Missiles, ABMs and Combating War
Strategies by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
China: The Fine art of Balancing Power Relations
and Economic
Engagement by Col. Rahul K. Bhonsle
A Tragic Tale of Self Betrayal by Michael
Levy
Vision of the Whole by TA Ramesh
Water Harvesting: Let's Do It by VK Joshi
Cry for a Hindu Nation by V. Sundaram
Vyasa – Witness to
Self, Witness to Life by Satya Chaitanya
The Name "Aparna" – Its Mythological Meaning in
Hindu Religion by Aparna Chatterjee
Learning a Mantra by A. Thiagarajan
Adventures in the Yucatan by Subra Narayan
Royal Heritage: A Legacy in Poetry by
Dr. Amitabh Mitra
Feeding Nourishment to your Preschooler by
Garima Gupta
The Witty Side by Melvin Durai
Software Testing by Ruchi Gupta
# 10 Dover Lane by Julia Dutta
Monsoon Blues by Sujata Iyer
The Change Within by Farah Shafqat
Bulldozing the Right to Survive by Gautam Bhan
Life Beyond the Tourism Brochure by Charumathi
Supraja
A Walk on the Wild Side by Loba
|
|
