In a country where Political parties are not fully institutionalised, every general election produces strange comings and goings. Judged from these permissive standards, something truly bizarre happened in the central office of the BJP in Delhi last Wednesday. A beatific L.K. Advani wheeled out the latest recruit to the "party with a difference" - former Congress MP Rangarajan Kumaramangalam.It was a tizzying experience. The son of the legendary Mohan Kumaramangalam - the face of Indira Gandhi's socialist phase in the BJP? Was this the tectonic electoral shift that Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee have been predicting? Or take the other example. It was the assault on Gujarat minister Atmaram Patel by indignant BJP cadres in May 1996 that finally heralded the Khajuria-Hajuria split and the installation of Shankersinh Vaghela as chief minister. Yet, last Thursday, it was the same Patel who rushed to the governor with a breakaway faction of the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) promising support to a BJP-led state government. Have politicians lost their heads? In the mad rush for alliances, has ideology been totally jettisoned? If what is happening to the BJP is any indication, it would seem so. But there is one important difference. In 1996, those who hurled abuses at each other during the election campaign buried the hatchet and teamed up to form a government centred on common antagonism. Now it is the season of pre-poll alliances. An important difference because the electorate knows exactly which candidate is on which side. Democracy in India is a process of adjusting and accommodating. For 49 years, the Congress wielded the stability card and the TINA (there is no alternative) factor. Now the boot is on the other foot. India's premier party is in the bizarre position where its flamboyant poll ally - Laloo Prasad Yadav - is perceived to have greater charisma than its president. Indeed, Sitaram Kesri had to apologise to his party for the failure to rope in another face - the redoubtable J. Jayalalitha - into the Congress alliance. Mamata Banerjee has walked out of the party showering abuses at Kesri, and Jagannath Mishra has gone his own way in Bihar. Two months before voting, the Congress is conveying the picture of collapse. Of course, the reports of the Congress' death are vastly exaggerated. But that is not the point. The real message is that the Congress begins its campaign from the No. 2 position. It has never happened before - and the party can't stomach it. Likewise, the BJP is having indigestion coping with its new status as the favourite party of the chattering classes. Should it now forget Ayodhya, the uniform civil code and Article 370 and settle down to reaping the returns of 20 years of grassroots activity? The party is desperate to win. After all, how much longer can you keep reassuring the faithful that agli bari (next time) it is Atal Bihari? It's now or never and means be damned. It doesn't pay to be nice. Wonderful calculations, except for one thing. This time the electorate is yearning for stable governance - it gave up expecting good governance a long time ago. But even stability requires a degree of rectitude and coherence. .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}For the BJP it is Vajpayee plus Thackeray plus Jayalalitha plus George Fernandes plus Naveen Patnaik plus Surjit Singh Barnala plus Bansi Lal plus assorted extras that equal stability. For the Congress it is Kesri plus Laloo plus anyone else. The desire for stability is particularly sharp in a national election - which is what 1998 will see, notwith standing the assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Voters want predictability and reassurance; they are getting an overdose of alliances. Voters are sick of coalitions; they are getting more of them. They are also getting tired old mantras of secularism and federalism and even Kesri's own version of garibi hatao. At least that is what the opinion poll shows. Don't get it wrong, the Indian voter isn't cynical or apathetic. Every election is a celebration of democracy. It is the time when every voter feels he is important because he has a choice. It is presumptuous to say it is a spurious choice. India is witnessing a political churning process that is leading to a redefinition of issues and identities. From afar it may not appear all that wholesome, but as Chairman Mao may have said, democracy is not a dinner party. It is a boisterous brawl in a carnival atmosphere. What a pity it is not also a debate. This election has everything - intrigues, deceit, bluff, bravado, duplicity, colour - everything for a lovely ethnographic documentary on Discovery Channel. It lacks one commodity: ideas. Yahan to maar kha gaya Hindustan.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jan 5, 1998--- ENDS ---
