How Manmohan and Karat have brought about a paradigm shift! | Girish Nikam

Published on 30-06-2008 In General

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How Manmohan and Karat have brought about a paradigm shift!

Wherever one goes nowadays or talks to people on the phone, one question which dominates conversations is--- when are we going to have the elections? Though the elections are scheduled more than ten months away, the question is inevitable as everyone who reads newspapers or watches TV are bombarded with stories of the impending elections. Ever political event, remark or meeting is inexorably linked to this possibility. The pet occupation of almost every journalist, especially in Delhi, whether he or she covers politics or not, is to indulge in some fanciful theories of how what so and so said actually meant, and how it means early elections.

In such an atmosphere does anything get done, especially in the corridors of the Government, where every little reason is good enough to postpone decisions? So we are increasingly hurtling towards inertia in the Government, which may sadly last even ten months, if this speculation continues and the UPA government finds ways to postpone its unavoidable demise.

Very few Governments, or should we be more precise and say a Prime Minister, displayed such a suicidal tendency as the present one. The last one, who came close to it and even succumbed to it, was the humble farmer. What did H.D.Deve Gowda in was that personal animosity he had developed for then Congress President Sitaram Kesri and displayed inordinate hurry to send him behind bars, on a dusted up case of suspicious death of a government doctor. Before his loyal officers could sue up a reasonable case, Kesri had reached the Rashtrapathi Bhavan with his letter withdrawing support to the United Front Government in that summer of 1997.

The fall of that Government had however no ideological or policy underpinnings and it was purely an ego clash between basically two petty-minded politicians who had reached their positions unexpectedly and if one even may say so, undeservedly. The fall of that Government was therefore not such a shock.

If one goes even beyond 1990s to the late seventies, the fall of the Morarji Desai Government and later the Charan Singh Government, after the glorious fight back by the Indian masses against the dreaded emergency, needs to be looked into. While Morarji's Government fell because of some extra-ordinary machinations of people like George Fernandes and the complete ideological incompatibility which got exposed sooner than one thought between the erstwhile Jan Sanghis and the rest, Charan Singh's Government was bound to fall from the day it was formed. His ambition had got the better of his political judgement, and about a little over a decade later, one saw a similar occurrence, when Chandra Shekhar's eminently forgettable Government collapsed in about five months.

His predecessor and bete noire, V.P.Singh atleast lost his Government on what could be termed as an ideological issue, when the BJP withdrew support, on the Ram Mandir issue. On the other hand when Vajpayee's Government fell in 1999, it was again an ego problem which caused it. That mercurial "Tantrum Thalaivi", Jayalalithaa had suddenly found herself uncomfortable in the company of the BJP and had withdrawn support. No ideological worries could have been attributed to her. However none of these Governments were in any way stable or had lasted long enough for anyone to mourn its loss, except of course those who had lost power prematurely.

In the background of these experiences which the country has been through, what is happening today has a different "tinge" to it. What's the difference? If we compare the 1997 summer with now, there are two glaring differences. For one the Prime Minister then and now have a vastly different image. And secondly the chief of the supporting party, then, Sitaram Kesri, stands no comparison to the chief of the supporting party of the Government now, Prakash Karat.

And for once it's the clash of ideologies and not personal ego clash, though on the face of it, it may seem so, which has resulted in the present impasse. Never before in our polity has there been such intense debate and close scrutiny of our foreign policy which has lead to equally intense debate and discussion on an issue like the energy policy as well as our strategic interests.

So if one has to look for the positive fallout of the "great ideological debate" which is on, it is that we have two brilliant minds clashing, which has not happened since probably the time of Jawaharlal Nehru. And equally important these two brilliant minds, Dr.Manmohan Singh and Prakash Karat, are squeaky clean and politicians not exactly in the mould which we are familiar with. Both can not be dubbed as traitors or that they don't have the national interest at heart. It is only that the way they perceive "national interest" is diametrically different.

And if one goes by the media projections, Prime Minister Singh's perception, which is to go ahead and sign the nuclear deal and also ties up a strategic partnership on the military and foreign policy front, even if it means fall of his Government and end of the left-UPA alliance, is "national interest". However if one looks beyond the mainstream media projections and the knee-jerk reactions of the chattering and middles classes, there is a significant constituency out there, which is increasingly feeling that Karat's idea of "national interest", which is to shun the hegemonic attempts of the Americans and to retain an independent foreign policy, is more valid.

Of course the outcome of this "great ideological debate" which incidentally is not such a clear Left vs Rest as it is made out to be by a section of the media, can of course hurt the secular forces grievously. It can even put these secular forces, which includes both the Congress and the left parties to pasture for some years by ceding space to increasingly re-emerging communal and ultra nationalistic forces. It can also mean that this country could find itself in the vortex of political and economic uncertainty for the next several years. But than that is the price, one guesses, a country and its polity, has to pay when two intellectuals clash ideologically. The only saving grace is that we are discussing ideology now and not some sleaze which the leaders had indulged in, which is resulting in the break up of an alliance and the impending fall of the Government. Guess both Singh and Karat can feel happy for bringing about this paradigm shift in Indian politics, however temporary it may prove to be!

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