Editorial, The Janata, 15 March, 1998
The BJP had learnt the lesson in May, 1996, when all others had joined to oust it from power. It went out of its way to seek and forge alliances. All its purism was a thing of the past, and it was willing to accept anyone who cared to join hands with it. The corruption-charged Jayalalitha was invited. Gopalaswamy who was considered close to the LTTE, too, was wooed; even that arch renegade, Subramaniam Swamy became a dear comrade-in-arms. One might call it promiscuity. The BJP went even further. It bade a go bye to its moral standards and accepted the likes of Hari Shankar Tewari as ministers and gave tickets for the Lok Sabha to Sanjay Singh and D.P. Yadav. The power bug had bitten it so hard that it started to vacillate on matters of policy, too. Having admitted such undesirable elements into its ranks, and having joined hands with all and sundry, the party is now going to reap the harvest. Its pragmatism and sense of real politic should ensure that it would not pursue a precipitous course. The bargaining has already started ... But, a Council of Ministers which has eminent politicians like Ramakrishna Hegde, George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar and Surjit Singh Barnala, apart from some talented leaders of the BJP, should be able to steer the Government to a moderate and liberal course. Those who think hat the BJP would want to pursue its hate agenda because of the pressure of the hard-liners and for future electoral gains may also be right. But, then, the balance in the Lok Sabha will be so precarious that unless the BJP leadership is planning to hold an early general election and achieve a majority of seats on its own, it would not adopt that course.
Dissolution of the Lok Sabha in this fashion might not be acceptable to the parties aligned to it, for obvious reasons. Therefore, possibly, the BJP would settle to rule by consensus for as long as possible ... The common people would be really interested to see that there is no price rise, social tensions are not aggravated and policies of poverty alleviation are pursued. With a vigilant opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Government will ever be on its toes. The BJP's major worry could be the intransigence of some of its own obdurate elements as also the demands of the allies. Hopefully, these factors will be easily negotiated. But, one cannot be too sure. In that sense, the challenge for Atal Behari Vajpayee will be quite a tough one.
While the BJP, with a will to power, was assiduously seeking allies, the Congress(I), decided otherwise ..
... But, the char ge in the party's thinking in respect of Tamilnadu, South Bihar, UP and Madhya Pradesh ccurred after Sonin Gandhi jumped in the campaign and began to draw large crowds ... The party definitely lost what it could have gained ... The difference could be more than fifty seats for the Congress(I) and its possible allies ...
For the United Front, the election results were disastrous ... Today JD is in a shambles after having given three Prime Ministers to the country. Hopefully, its leaders will make an agonising appraisal of its decline, steep as it is.
