Commentary/T V R Shenoy
India should thank Laloo Prasad Yadav for exposing the United
Front once and for all
TThe largest party in the Lok Sabha doesn't have a seat in the Union Cabinet. The second-largest party in the Lok Sabha doesn't
have a seat in the Union Cabinet. The third-largest party in the
Lok Sabha doesn't have a seat in the Union Cabinet. Is this the
'democracy' we are asked to celebrate in the Golden Jubilee of
independence?
India should thank Laloo Prasad Yadav for exposing the United
Front once and for all. By splitting the Janata Dal, he has raised
uncomfortable questions which the United Front must answer.
Once upon a time, the massed ranks of the United Front howled
about a "mandate" in the Lok Sabha. We all saw them
doing so in the famous televised debates. Which do you think is
more torn and tattered today -- that stupid excuse or the Janata
Dal?
The Janata Dal was far from being the largest party in the Lok
Sabha. Now that Laloo Prasad Yadav has danced away with 18 MPs,
the Janata Dal can't even claim that it is the largest party in
the United Front. That honour goes to the CPI-M!
How about the prime minister who is dreaming of ascending the
Red Fort to unfurl the tricolour on this historic August? He was
born in Punjab and has spent most of his adult life in Delhi.
But he swears that he is "normally resident" in Patna,
and gets Rajya Sabha membership on the strength of that fib.
Under the circumstances is it surpassing that Inder Kumar Gujral
is so quiet when it comes to criticising Laloo Prasad Yadav? He
can't afford to do so -- in a few years he will need to grovel before
Yadav once more. (With the Janata Dal crashing in Orissa and in
difficulties in Karnataka, where else can he go?)
I remember those stories about how Gujral would sacrifice his
office rather than compromise on principle. I stopped believing
in fairy tales a very long time ago. Today those stories ring
even more hollow than ever. But it isn't just the prime minister
who has been exposed. His shame is shared by his United Front
partners.
The United Front doesn't want to lose the MPs who have joined
hands with the rebellious chief minister. Nor do they want to
lose the largest state ruled by the United Front. But this pack
of hypocrites doesn't want to be seen in public alongside the
tainted Laloo Prasad Yadav. How do they square the circle?
The United Front has reacted by pretending the problem doesn't
exist. The Steering Committee was supposed to meet on July 8.
That was cancelled, on the excuse that
the split was an internal affair of the Janata Dal!
This, I assume, means that Laloo Prasad Yadav is correct when
he insists that he and his followers are still members of the
United Front. So much for the Left Front's well-publicised campaign
against corruption -- if the Communists were serious, they should
insist on kicking out everyone concerned in the fodder scam.
There is another reason, an unstated one, for the Communist silence.
If they push Laloo Prasad Yadav beyond a point, he is perfectly
capable of destroying the Left Front in Bihar. Whatever the leaders
in Delhi may claim there are several comrades on the ground who
can be lured away by the wily chief minister.
That may not affect the CPI-M too much. But the CPI still has
pockets of influence in the State. Is that, perhaps, why Union
Home Minister Indrajit Gupta (a CPI man to the bone) is keeping
unnaturally quiet?
(Do you think that a split in the Communist ranks is impossible?
If so, take a look at Uttar Pradesh. Malaya Singh Yadav arranged
for just that. It is interesting to note that in the great battle
against 'communalism,' the two Yadavs's main aim is to
demolish their 'secular' allies!)
If Laloo Prasad Yadav has stripped the prime minister and the
United Front of their pretensions, why should he spare the Congress?
The Bihar chief minister is putting it very brutally: 'Choose
between me and the BJP, because we are the only forces that matter
in Bihar.'
The Congress is prudently silent. (Its president, like Gujral,
needs Laloo Prasad Yadav if he is ever to make it to the Lok Sabha.)
But behind closed doors, the message has been sent out to Congressmen
in Bihar that Yadav must not be disturbed. This means that his
chances of surviving a vote of confidence are substantially better.
When, pray, did the question of a vote in the assembly arise?
Morality demands that a Chief Minister quit the moment that serious
charges are filed against him. If he doesn't go voluntarily, he
should be booted out, the sooner the better.
But Laloo Prasad Yadav, with the tacit consent of all those great
moralists in the United Front and the Congress, has made 'morality'
the servant of 'majority'.
Laloo Prasad Yadav has been indulged to the point where he can
defy the investigators, the courts, and even public opinion. That,
fellow citizens, is the true face of the great 'secular'
alternative.
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