The Kalyan Singh episode has ramifications way beyond the BJP ... This unedifying development has unwittingly brought to the fore the kinds of balances that need to be maintained if we have to have a degree of political coherence in our governance at the Centre. It is all very well for the self-serving National Democratic Alliance partners to keep talking about the age of coalition, but the fundamental, abiding and unchangeable requirement of coherence at the Centre cannot be achieved without an effective national political party. The Kalyan Singh affair carries with it a promise that the BJP leadership is beginning to appreciate the requirements of coherence in a continental polity like ours.
. It is simply unnatural for a Chief Minister to think of himself or herself on a par with the Prime Minister; such an equation would be unnatural, and, if conceded, disastrous ..
This Kalyan Singh business ... has to be seen in the larger context of the absolute imperative of having a working party system, based on a set of well-structured and wisely-led national political parties, if India is to survive and prosper as a nation-state. Political parties reasonably united, reasonably ideologically-oriented, reasonably disciplined - are at the core of civilised competition within the democratic framework; viable political parties provide the organisational format for expression of conflicting visions, ideas and ideologies.
It necessarily follows that each coherent party has to have a hierarchy of decision-making which cannot countenance, beyond a point, individualistic views and personal whims.
Admittedly in recent years political parties, as organised expressions of ideologies and programmes, have suffered a palpable erosion, both in terms of effectiveness and popular support. But it is also possible to argue that the crisis of governability that has overtaken the Indian polity in the last decade or so can be easily traced to the decline of political parties, especially of the pan-Indian variety. Unless that party system is nursed back to a reasonably good health, the much sought and much touted political stability will continue to elude us.
The reason is obvious. The political parties and its mascots - the politicians - have fallen prey to the concerted attack on their acceptability and legitimacy from the vendors of the market economy; if the Indian state had to be dislodged from the commanding heights of the economy, the Indian politician and his political party had to be discredited ...
At least two generations of political activists, ideologues, commentators, pamphleteers and other propagandists have subscribed to the view that it was possible to govern India from New Delhi without the Centre making any demands for discipline, obedience, and deference from the state leaders.
It was deemed to be politically correct to talk and promote "creative federalism", without the regional leaders, voices and interests having to acknowledge and without having to defer to the pan-Indian concerns and compulsions. The Kalyan Singh episode should per force prompt a rethinking on our current infatuation with the regional leaders and parties, and on the larger assertion that New Delhi can be governed only from the states.
... No Prime Minister can lead - and more importantly can be perceived at home and abroad to be leading – an effective national government if he is not palpably seen as commanding the support and allegiance of a "national" constituency. Above all, though a Prime Minister still has to act wisely and thoughtfully, he must necessarily be seen to be able to demand unstinted allegiance from within his own party. (Source: The Hindu, 1 December, 1999)
Kalyan's Last Stand Editorial, The Times of India, 27 Nov., 99
What sets the rebel apart from the malcontent is leadership quality. Indira Gandhi had it as did V.P. Singh. The former is the only rebel Prime Minister this country has known: she revolted; broke the Congress and walked away, not with a faction, but the parent party. V.P. Singh's success wasn't quite as spectacular, but he nevertheless brought down a government and changed the course of history. Now, we have Kalyan Singh threatening to go down the same path ... Ayodhya ... earned for him a fan following which became a crucial factor in every political party's electoral calculations ... As if by sleight of hand, he produced a majority in the assembly after the Mayawati government's exit ... (He) engineered for the BJP the electorally unbeatable upper caste-OBC combination. The big question is: Does Kalyan Singh have it in him to strike out on his own? More importantly, will the Kalyan fan club go along? Where Kalyan Singh differs from Indira Gandhi and V.P. Singh is in the target he has chosen ...Kalyan Singh ... has taken on Prime Minister Vajpayee, easily the most popular political figure of current times. Vajpayee's phenomenal personal popularity rating aside, he enjoys the confidence of the two dozen allies who together make up the National Democratic Alliance. Indeed, he is the only reason for them to hang together. Within the larger Sangh Parivar, too, Vajpayee has firmly established himself, having subdued whatever opposition there was to him last year ... (Kalyan Singh) has not only chosen to swim against the current, he has chosen a theme that has lost currency. Nor is Kalyan Singh's Ayodhya obsession likely to find favour with Mulayam Singh Yadav, with whom he might otherwise have formed a formidable OBC alliance ... For all that, the fate that awaits him seems that of the lonely plodder.