Commentary/ Saisuresh Sivaswamy

The UF sacrifices Deve Gowda, not power

Perhaps no one expected Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda to launch a broadside against Congress president Sitaram Kesri, in what was his farewell speech to Parliament and the nation. Punctuated with earthy references to the past and filled with digs at his mute friends on the Opposition benches, his latent appeal for a conscience vote fell on deaf ears. He has now joined the illustrious company of V P Singh, the only other Indian prime minister to have been defeated on the floor of the Lok Sabha.

There are many differences between that motion of November 1990, and Friday's.

Singh, endowed with abundant prescience, used that vote to let the nation know that even as his outfit perished in the defence of a ramshackle mosque in Uttar Pradesh and protection of the interests of the downtrodden, the Congress had no qualms about voting on the side of the Bharatiya Janata Party, if it served its immediate interests, ideology be damned.

And it is the aftermath of that shrewd manoeuvre that P V Narasimha Rao earlier and Kesri now are trying to cope with.

In Deve Gowda's case, there was no such deeper game behind his decision to be ousted in the Lok Sabha. Yes, the subcontinent saw in splendid glory that the Congress had no real reason for withdrawing support to the United Front and that Kesri was not being entirely truthful when he spoke of intimating the UF of ignoring the Congress party's interests.

This is something the nation knew already; that it was pique and not policy that motivated the 'Old Man in a Hurry', and it did not really need television images to ram home this point.

But, yes, the telecast did have a purpose; thanks to it, Deve Gowda has gone down in history as a sincere prime minister, one who brought homely idioms to South Block, and one who would rather defend his honour than swallow humiliation in order to retain his perks -- rather like his friend Chandra Shekhar.

At the end of the evening, punctuated with Speaker Purno A Sangma's directives to restore order, it became clear that the UF was only sacrificing Deve Gowda, not power. Finance Minister P Chidamabaram made this much clear when he spoke of going down fighting. But closing ranks tomorrow. Obviously, the backroom manoeuvres by the UF's bright boys to persuade Deve Gowda to resign before the vote was taken up failed; the Karnataka politician preferred to join issues with Kesri than go gently into the good night.

This was fine by the Congress, which is now so keen on sharing power with the United Front, that Deve Gowda's barbs have been ignored. It is significant that Deve Gowda's Cabinet has only resigned and not recommended dissolution of the eleventh Lok Sabha which much surely rank as the most fragile in the nation's history.

The UF leaders have given themselves enough room to jockey back into the prime ministership: Kesri's ambition of moving into 7, Racecourse Road must be put on hold for some more time, as the best deal that his party may get in the new dispensation will be the deputy prime ministership.

Yes, it may seem opportune to most, but look at this way: Neither the United Front nor the Congress party want elections at this point -- especially after Friday's debate in which it conducted itself with dignity, the BJP's stock is at an all-time high -- so a little accommodation is being allowed by both sides.

The UF, despite its performance in government, does not wish to explain to the people why it is once again knocking on their doors, after promising a five year administration only last year, while the Congress -- which has come out as a villain in Friday's telecast -- would prefer putting off the inevitable.

Thus, the Congress took potshots at the prime minister (and not at the UF, which is significant), who retorted in kind, so the score is even. And, there is only one way to avoid a repetition in the near future, which is for a party with 140-odd MPs to join the government and not support it from the outside.

Even as it comes to pass, the imponderables remain. Mainly, that elections cannot be put off indefinitely. Latest by 2000, the two sides will have to face the polls, and it is revealing to remember here that for most of the Front constituents, it is the Congress and not the BJP which is the main electoral rival back home.

So how do you explain to the simple voter the imperative of coming together in New Delhi to keep the BJP out of power even while going for each other's jugular at the state level. And, unless the two sides really resolve this conundrum, tensions will keep cropping up between the two sides even if the Congress joins the government.

The BJP, among the entire lot, has come out with its head held high. What is of interest is that the way speaker after speaker belaboured the BJP in Friday's debate. A latecomer could be pardoned for believing that it was the BJP that caused the ructions by withdrawing support to the government and not the Congress party. That regional imbalance needed the prime minister, no less, to be rectified.

So, have early elections been staved off? For the time being, it would seem so. But given the internal contradictions in the working arrangement between the Congress and the United Front, it will call for extreme levels of political sagacity to prevent an action replay of the tussle between Kesri and Deve Gowda.

What needs to be borne in mind here is that the Congress president is fighting with his back to the wall. He has won this battle against great odds, and with the Young Turks waiting for him to only stumble before they move in, he cannot rest on his laurels.

In fact, that imperative on him to keep scoring points in order to neutralise his intra-party rivals may well be the biggest hurdle to amity between the Congress and the United Front.

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