Commentary/ Saisuresh Sivaswamy

Gujral is the man for all the wrong reasons

For the first time perhaps in the history of the country, we have a prime minister who has not been chosen for his acceptance or popularity but because he was the least unpopular.

And, perhaps for only the second time in the history of the country, the prime minister will not be a member of the Lok Sabha--a barometer of one's electability among the people -- but is a member of the Rajya Sabha.

These, of course, are extraordinary times in the history of the young nation, and perhaps there are signs that we are yet to fully evolve as a parliamentary democracy.

If it can be reasonably argued that the United or the Federal Front did not have a mandate from the electorate to govern but is merely a conglomeration of political parties that fought the elections against one another or at least the Congress, without whose support it cannot rule, it is even truer that Gujral is not the people's prime minister. But then, he has never been much of a people's politician either.

And, if anyone of those who chose him for the high office had visions of the new prime minister leading the political hydra to victory, then it certainly will remain a distant hope.

The Congress, no doubt, is elated at the selection of one who has not much time for cultivating a mass base. Hand it to Deve Gowda, at least he had his home state, Karnataka, in his pocket when he became everyone's surprise candidate for the top job.

Of course, Gujral till recently headed one of the two ministries which, under Deve Gowda, distinguished themselves, and it is but natural to expect he will remain his own foreign minister. How ironical it is, then, that the other ministry will in all likelihood have a new head, now that the Tamil Maanila Congress has decided to pull out of the Front.

Bruised egos are nothing for crisis managers in the capital, and these days it is believed that, along with middlemen, they are choc-a-bloc in Delhi's corridors of power, next only to failed prime ministerial and ministerial aspirants. It is likely that the TMC may also be lured back into the government, its ministerial quota going up from the present four. But this will pose problems for its alliance partners back home, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which has entered the government as an equal ally. If Gujral increased the DMK's quota as well, that will create what can be called a regional imbalance, and will tax all the PM's diplomatic skills.

In a sense, it is just as well that the new prime minister has had a long stint in international diplomacy. He will surely find the task of balancing of 20 disparate political constituents will make his earlier stints in diplomatic hotbeds seem like -- in Pamela Bordes's famous words -- a teddy bear picnic.

Suave, non-controversial, diplomatic... these are some of the words that have been used to describe Gujral. If these be true, then, as far as my memory serves me, no other prime minister before him fits the bill. In that sense, Gujral will be a unique experiment in the chief executive's post, forget that where the country is concerned this is no time for experiments.

For another, the prime minister's job, by its very nature, is political. Granted, it involves balancing the various demands from regions, ministries etc., but the man in the post has always had a political outlook even while keeping the nation's overall interest in mind. For the first time, in this sense, a non-politician is being called upon to do justice, and the most charitable view one can have is that since one has seen all the others there is no harm is trying out something new.

But balancing egos is going to be the new prime minister's priority, and main task. The sordid drama that preceded his selection should leave him in no doubt as to the dangers that could befall him in the near future. After all, it was pique that goaded the Congress president Sitaram Kesri into ejecting Deve Gowda from the prime ministership.

This time round, the Congress, having walked through fire, may well play the friend and counsel from outside to the government. What Gujral will need to watch out for will be dangers from within the conglomeration of egos he heads.

It is a tough job, and how to do it is not taught at the India International Centre and other such places. It is a job that is going to task the apolitical prime minister to the limit. On another plane, by choosing Gujral, the Front has demonstrated that it does not want to ruffle any more feathers in the Congress than it has already has. Gujral's selection in that sense is a fig leaf appointment, meant to placate the Congress.

The latter, of course, would have been thrilled had it been the Tamil Maanila Congress that bagged the coveted job, but it seems in retrospect that it was the perceived proximity to the Congress party that put paid to G K Moopanar's hope of succeeding Deve Gowda. Gujral, in a way, has got just the right distance between him and 24 Akbar Road.

But pique, spiked ambition are all potent factors and many a political history would have been written differently but for these elements. By walking out of the front in a moment of anger, the TMC has demonstrated the vulnerability from within of the United Front. And this will pose the greatest danger to the 10-month-old experiment in governance in the days to come.

How ironical, then, that at the end of the three-week old crisis that paralysed the government, it is the perpetrator, the Congress, and everyone's whipping boy, the Bharatiya Janata Party, that have emerged the happiest. And that the UF, all sound and fury in the beginning, has put its tail meekly between its legs. At least now we know that it is the tail that wags this government, and not the head.

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