DAWN - Opinion; 20 January, 1998
Alliances of opportunism

By Kuldip Nayar

THERE is a doctrine, the 'dialectical materialism' of Karl Marx. It says that political theory is not prior, but posterior to political fact. It is like the ratioinalization which a person seeks after having acted for irrational motives. In such matters, the reasoning seems to be the motive which has produced the act; in reality, the act has given birth to the reasoning.

So is the case with the alliances which political parties have forged among themselves. They have joined hands first and have found the justification later. There is no ideology involved, no principle, no ethics. It is either sheer opportunism or power politics or both. Parties have come together not on the basis of policy or promise but strategy or skill.

To delude voters, they will invent something to fit the facts. But it is not some lofty thinking which has directed their action. By hook or by crook, they want to win. It is the consideration for win. Therefore, it is not surprising to find that programmes have receded into the background and personalities have come to the fore. Election manifestos are only a ritual. And they do not feel embarrassed when they say publicly that they will decide what to do after the polls. Who represents which viewpoint is not important so long as that 'who' can help them win more seats.

The worst culprit is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the high priest of values. It contemptuously called the United Front as the 14-party jumble. But its electoral allies, with whom it expects to form government at the Centre, are already 12. They are: Shiv Sena in Maharashtra; Samata Party in Bihar; Shiroman Akali Dal in Punjab; AIADMK, PMK and Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress in Tamil Nadu; TDP (Lakshmi Parvati) and Telugu Talli in Andhra Pradesh, Biju Janata Dal in Orissa; Trinamool Congress in West Bengal; Lok Tantrik Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Lok Shakti in Karnataka. What astrings them is the hope to be rulers.

Ideologically also, the BJP is haywire. It has aligned itself on the one hand with the Samata Party which opposes the scraping of special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370, and on the other with the Lok Shakti, which has denounced the BJP on the demolition of Babri Masjid. The BJP has also the Akalis as its ally in Punjab, although it vehemently opposes their demand on the Anandpur Sahib resolution which gives the Centre only three to four subjects. Corruption, says the BJP, will be its poll plank. But its ally in Tamil Nadu is AIADMK, whose chief Jayalalitha has a plethora of cases relating to corruption registered against her. The court has taken cognizance of them. But the BJP promises to have a sympathetic look if it comes to power.

Congress is no better. It blames the Untied Front for having tended the interest of its constituents and forgetting about the governance. But if the party comes to power it will also have to reckon with disparate elements. As of today, Congress has already six allies: Rashtriya Janata dal (RJD) in Bihar; Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in some states; the Haryana Lok Dal; Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Bihar, SJP and BKKP through RJD. There is also some understanding with Samajwadi Party in Maharashtra and in UP. Still Congress continues to give out as if it is going it alone.

The party is not even in a good company. The BSP, a crucial supporter, abuses Mahatma Gandhi day in and day out. RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Bihar former chief minister, has spent more than one month in jail while awaiting the bail in cases on the fodder scam which cost the exchequer Rs 10,000 crore. Congress demands actions against Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for his alleged involvement in the Letter of Credit (LOC) scandal. But it looks to the other side when Laloo Prasad's name is mentioned.

The Janata Dal, crying hoarse in the name of honesty, is holding negotiations with former minister Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, who is reported to have helped his son in a deal of fertiliser imports. Party chief Sharad Yadav has the distinction of admitting that he took money for the party in the Jain hawala scam. The Communists hate Congress but they are ready to support it where they do not count.

In the last one decade, two issues which dominated India's political scene are Bofors kickbacks and the Babri Masjid's demolition. In the first, the face of the Congress has been blackened and in the second the BJP's. The amusing part is that several non-BJP and non-Congress parties which spared no invective to run down the two are now lining up with one or the other. One set of parties has pushed under the rug the Bofors gun deal and other, the destruction of the mosque.

The United Front has still its 14 allies in tow: Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, CPM, CPI, DMK and TMC in Tamil Nadu , TDP in Andhra Pradesh, RSP in Maharashtra, Forward Block in West Bengal, MGP in Goa, National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir, Asom Gana Parishad, Manipur State Congress and Arunachal Congress. But the United Front is only a shell; it is neither united nor a front. The constituents are contesting on their own. One constituent, Samajwadi Party has already ticked off Front chairman Deve Gowda for going beyond the limits.

Political leaders have given the name of "like-minded parties" to the rumps or the organisations they have chosen for alliance. Some say that it is the seat adjustment. Samata Party chief George Fernandes argues that they had no alternative if they wanted to fight against the corrupt and entrenched person like Laloo Prasad Yadav. If helplessness is the criterion, why did he not join the BJP or the erstwhile party, Jana Sangh, when he was fighting Congress, equally large, corrupt and entrenched? He preferred to be in the wilderness but did not do so a few years ago. Power provides strange rationalisation.

By aligning with the BJP, Fernandes has proved that ideology is a dress which he can don or cast off without any qualm of conscience. Lok Shakti chief Ramakrishan Hedge has acted likewise. He has stood against communalism all his life. At least so was the impression when he joins hands with the BJP, what should one make out? Was the past a facade? He nearly aligned himself with Congress but went to the BJP when Congress did not give him the number of seats he wanted. Does the anti-Hindutva stand boil down to a few seats?

What has happened is that conveniences have been taken for convictions and commitments. Alignments have rubbed off the stain or the stripes the parties carried. All of them are now pure and honest. There can be no compunction in having them in the fold. There will, indeed, be a theory, since man is a theory-making animal. But the theory has been propounded after calculating the gain.

Alliances have, indeed, made a mockery of the party identity. Any party can join hands with anyone because none stands for anything. Everything is maleable. So there is no difficulty in stretching one party or the other to a point which is acceptable. Still more ephemeral are the elements joining different parties. Take the blue-eyed boy of former Prime Minister V.P. Singh. He stood firm against the Hindu chauvinism even in the days of the Rath Yatra, which BJP chief L.K. Advani led to sow the seeds of hatred in northern India.

What has happened now? Is the Lok Sabna seat so important or is it an example of latent loyalities? The case of M.G.K. Menon, the renowned scientist and former minister for science and technology in the National Front government is most unfortunate. After decades of association with anti-commual forces, he has joined the BJP. It will be interesting to know how long ago did he nourish the Hindutva philosophy?

Probably, such are the persons whome the BJP describes as pseudo-secularists, while attacking secularism. The party is right in a sense. They have been pseudo all along. They have had no deep commitment to India's ethos that religion is not mixed with politics. What the BJP should, however, note is that their love for the Hindutva has surged only after the elections have been announced and after the party is taken as a serious contender to power.

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