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'I hope Bihar doesn't pay a price for BJP-JD-U split'
In an interview with the CNN-IBN, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley says that the Third front is a failed idea
You can't have an India ruled by anybody else other than these two big anchors (the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party). Is the Third Front more fragmented or actually an idea which will continue to endure, since both the national parties are on a decline?
I think the Third Front is a failed idea. It has been experimented at least three or four times in India -- it hasn't lasted beyond a few months. India can hardly afford instability of that kind. You can't have a national party where the anchor of the coalition doesn't have more than 20-25 seats.
Then you have contradiction you can't have the Trinamool Congress and the Left, the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam, the All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party on the same side. The third front will lead the Fourth Front; probably a Fifth Front, and then they end up splitting the vote.
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Bihar has improved in the last seven to eight years
Is that the massage to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar?
No. It is an answer to your question is that the anchor of coalition has to be a national political party, with 150-200 seats only, then India can have a stable coalition.
Now as far the massage you want to convey from the news point you defined, I think Bihar underwent a terrible situation for almost 15 years.
I believe that the situation has improved in the last seven to eight years. So I think it is in everybody's interest, including the interest of the state that you keep the political and the social alliance which has been able to deliver. And if we are unable to keep it intact, I only hope Bihar doesn't price a pay for it.
While we talk of a Parliamentary democracy, are elections in India becoming presidential? And is that what you would like? Do you believe that the next election will be Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi versus Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi?
The candidates are yet to be decided, but I can answer your question theoretically without giving you news value on individuals. In structured political parties, the party will always get the importance. Its only when a political party is built around an individual or a family does an individual get dominance.
Therefore if you have political parties that are built around personalities, probably what you fear may be true. But in structured political parties, it is hardly likely.
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