Commentary/ Rajiv Shukla

I will sleep with you, but I will not marry you!

Yes, comrades, that's right: I admire Sitaram Kesri. Honest.

Before you start stoning me -- or whatever else you are planning -- lend me your eyes for five minutes. I promise to be brief, comrades, very brief.

My admiration for Kesri arises from a simple fact. That the old man, whatever else he has done (or undone), had the guts to challenge the Communists in their own den, Calcutta. He called them 'opportunists and corrupt'. He said that they, along with Opposition parties, had launched an agitation against Chimanbhai Patel, calling him corrupt when he was the Congress chief minister. Later, when it suited them, Kesri said, the same Communists extended outside support to the 'corrupt' Patel and made him the chief minister (as leader of non-Congress forces)! Apparently, the moment Patel decided to head non-Congress forces he had turned 'honest'!

All of which makes the Communists corrupt opportunists in Kesri's book. I, too, fully subscribe to that view.

After all, what has been the comrades's attitude towards the Congress? "I will sleep with you, but will not marry you!" They are enjoying all the facilities of a government which is in existence because of Congress support.

But no, Kesri and company are not good enough for marriage!

Whether it is Presidential nominations for Rajya Sabha or the appointment of governors, our comrades do not want any Congressmen around. Not only that, they have taken a public stand they would not support a government in which Congress would be a partner!

My dear comrades, I am at a loss to understand you! You are sitting in a government which is being supported by the Congress, but do not want to support a UF-Congress coalition? I can understand your having reservation about supporting a Congress-led government, but what is the problem in supporting a coalition government with them?

Our Communist leaders are so rigid and impractical that they do not even want to give any government facility to Congress leaders. Every proposal which Prime Minister I K Gujral bring in that might help a Congressman, the comrades will fight!

The fact is that the Congress has got 50 per cent of the total MPs supporting the government. So it is entitled to take a 50 per cent share of the governmental benefits the UF is entitled to.

But no, the comrades see red over it.

This attitude will definitely create a problem for the government in future (as if Gujral doesn't have enough heaped on his plate already!). It is a wrong interpretation that the Left Front or the Janata Dal have a mandate to rule the country. On the contrary, they are being isolated by the people -- the LF is confined to three states and the JD to just one.

I strongly believe that Kesri is no less honest than any Communist leader. He is equally sympathetic towards the downtrodden, and the deprived. In fact, a number of Congressmen are opposed to him because of his 'backward' politics. He has taken a strong stand on secularism too, and condemned his own government's incapability to save the Babri mosque. And he is supporting a JD-Communist coalition to keep the BJP out of power.

So what is it about him that upsets the comrades so much? What makes him such an 'unmarriable' commodity? Forget the big wedding, the Communists could at least call him their fiance?

No. The Reds won't even think of extending outside support to the Congress (though they are shameless enough to take it from them)! What hypocrisy!

If Jyoti Basu talks to multinationals and foreign investors it is all right; but if it is Manmohan Singh, it is against the Indian interest! What I do is right and what you do is wrong! If Communists can support a Congress government led by Indira Gandhi, why can't they support a Kesri-led one?

UF sources say there are only two forces -- the LF and Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party -- which are against Congress participation in the government. (Naidu is quite friendly with Kesri, but he is being forced by the Communists to oppose Congress.) Other constituents are even ready for a Congress-led government.

So one day, not far in the future, we might have a Congress-UF government. Which, naturally, would be minus the comrades. And guess who will be the PM then?

Yes, that's right: the 'old man in a hurry'!

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