ELECTIONS '98
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Why, my beloved country

The current goings-on in New Delhi are beyond the wildest imagination of the worst cynic, the biggest sceptic among all of humanity. That power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely are axioms too well known to bear repetition, but surely one could be excused for not knowing that not just power, even the effort of seeking it could corrupt men, leave mere mortals like the rest of us aside. That the pursuit of power in itself, and not its exercise, or misuse, is a vocation considered so noble by those who we were unfortunate in electing on our behalf, that you and I, on whose behalf all power is vested and exercise, can do little but stand aside and wonder.

Wonder at the descent of man, and woman, into murky politics, murkier alliances, unprincipled stands, ideological about-turns, all of which combine to rape the country, insult its people, disembowel its potential, all the while mouthing platitudes about speaking and acting on behalf of the voter whose cumulative karma could not have merited this rag-tag bundle.

Consider the unfolding scenario. An incumbent government that is enjoying a razor-thin majority, which had been bumbling along for well-nigh 12 months, is promised 'constructive opposition' by the second largest party in the Lok Sabha. As the greenhorns navigate their way through the corridors of power, and gain in confidence and start projecting an image of seriousness, out come the agents provocateurs. Suddenly all thought of being constructive is forgotten, what one hears about these days is all about 'constitutional responsibility'.

Out have come the professional destabilisers, power-brokers, wheeler-dealers, the termites eating into the body politic. Such is their cockiness that they expect the people to believe their claims that whatever be the form of the next government, if and when it is formed, the country has nothing to worry about.

But is that the truth? Why should any of us believe a government in which the Congress, the Left, the DMK, the AIADMK, the Janata Dal, the Samajwadi Party all have a stake? Why should anyone believe that this government will be more stable than the Vajpayee administration, considering it will have far more parties supporting it? Public memory sure is short, but to expect it to be so brief as to forget all about the United Front fiasco is to display an air of arrogance about voter preferences.

Let us look at the only two scenarios possible in case of an alternative government. One, the Congress forms a government, either in league with other parties, or have them support it from the outside. Two, the latter come together and form the government, and the Congress supports it from the outside.

And, a look at the mandate of 1998 in whose name experimental theatre is being enacted in New Delhi. The BJP and its allies -- including Jayalalitha -- were the single largest bloc, which fought the election on the 'stable and able' government. Whereas the other side, that had fought the election against each other as much as against the BJP, fared badly. The Congress *did not* go to polls in league with the other parties with whom it is negotiating today to form the government. The fractured mandate of 1998, if at all, was for the BJP to form the government, period. It was not for one-MP parties, six-MP parties and the like to become the prime minister, to fulfill their private ambitions at the expense of the nation.

To revert to an alternative government, with the Congress in office supported from the outside by its like-minded partners, Indians are called upon to believe that an Italian-born apolitical person, who spent a large part her married life dissuading her husband from entering the murky world of politics, who till date has shown a profound reluctance to indulge in an intellectual powwow with the media, has not articulated one cogent viewpoint on the issues facing the nation, who has not fought an election till date, and who will be making a backdoor entry into office, is the best solution for India at this point in time.

Not only that, such a government, headed by such a person, supported from the outside by the likes of prime ministerial aspirants, Indians are told, will be more stable than the incumbent one. All Fool's Day was some two weeks away, but if our politicians had their way, Indians will have only one date through the year: April 1.

The converse is worse, of a motley crew in office supported from the outside by the Congress. Forget public memory, politicians' memory has a convenient off-on mode. Charan Singh in 1979, Chandra Shekhar in 1990, H D Deve Gowda in 1997 and I K Gujral in 1998, three of who are still around, bear ample testimony to the Congress's reliability when it has supported a government from the outside. Why is the Congress going to behave any differently this time round?

And why are we also expected to believe that the AIADMK, which has a single-point programme in supporting the central government, namely to have its supreme leader cleared of all charges of malfeasance and the like, will behave any differently with the new government, and for how long? These are questions that no one is asking the dramatis personae, as they strut about the political stage playing king-maker and giant-killer.

It needs to be re-emphasised that there is nothing noble, nothing patriotic, nothing esteemable about the drama that is unfolding everyday, on our computer monitors, our television screens and the morning newspaper. It is only about power, either retaining or usurping it. All the high-falutin' talk, of saving the country from evil clutches, is so much hogwash.

Yes, the logistics of parliamentary democracy demand that the government can continue only so long as it enjoys parliamentary majority. But, what our Founding Fathers did not say in so many words -- probably out of the mistaken notion that their successors will follow the same yardstick of political morality -- was that parliamentary majority is not the equivalent of moral sanction to rule, that undisguised powerplay can never take the place of federal administration.

As naked ambition once again seeks to destroy what little trust and faith Indians have in their political system -- a gauge of which is the declining voter turnout poll after poll -- little can be expected of our ruling class for whom 'nation before self' is just another cliché. In such a situation, is it wrong to expect the President, sworn to uphold democracy and prevent its abuse, to lend sage counsel, to save the polity from politicians?