NATIONAL POLITICS
The Samata's current crisis, which has virtually torn it apart and might yet destroy it, is rooted in its shattering humiliation in the Bihar Assembly in March last. Mr. Kumar's renewed claims of doing in the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll what he could not achieve the last time are little more than empty bombast. His warning that if Mr. Laloo Yadav were allowed to "rig elections a second time" nothing would be able to "save Bihar from turning into another Kashmir", is also overblown rhetoric, behind this smokescreen, Mr. Kumar and his cohorts, with full and loud backing from Mr. Fernandes, are really looking for some way to return to the Lok Sabha in April-May, 1996. But, then again, where is the sitting MP, regardless of party affiliations, who is not driven by precisely the same motivation?
Were this all the Samata's affairs, at times laughable and often lamentable, they would not have merited such attention. But what makes them noteworthy is that they are reflective of what is going on practically all across the political spectrum. The Samata leaders... are not alone in giving the crass search for personal or factional gain precedence over everything else, glorifying opportunistic and often shifting alliances as "political skill", and making out a cynical betrayal of long held ideologies and ideals to be something akin to political virtuosity. In short, the Samata shenanigans need watching because they are not an aberration but part of a fast-expanding pattern that looks like embracing the entire Indian polity.
As the old Indian saying goes, there can be no clapping with only one hand. It takes two to tango. And why blame the Kumar-Fernandes faction of the Samata if the BJP is as happy to be its dancing partner as it is in seeking an anchorage in the Hindutva party?
On behalf of Mr. Nitish Kumar and his fellow- travelers, it can surely be argued that they are looking for alliance of OBCs, Muslims and Scheduled Castes, which any port in storm. They cannot be choosy. They know existed when the SP-BSP coalition ruled the State, can that in Bihar, unlike in UP, the BJP did not amount to effectively keep communal forces at bay. much either in the 1991 elections or in those held earlier this year. But where else can they go? Having burnt their boats with Mr. Laloo Yadav, indeed earned his wrath, they cannot have any place in the Janata Dal. Nor is knocking at the door of the Congress as a viable option.
For one thing, as in UP, so in Bihar, the Congress (1) has been virtually decimated. It is no secret that Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao is keeping open the possibility of some kind of electoral deals with the two Yadavs, Mr. Laloo Prasad in Bihar and Mr. Mulayam Singh in U.P.
Even this elaborate rationale of Mr. Kumar and his friends has not disposed of the glaring contradiction between his past commitment to secular ideals and his present eagerness to join hands with the BJP. In the Assembly elections only eight months ago, he had given the BJP a wide berth and made common cause with, of all parties, the CPI (Marxist-Leninist). Now he is justifying his switch to the other extreme by quoting Kautilya's familiar dictum that an enemy's enemy is one's best friend.
And this brings me to the saddest part of the story which also underscores a dangerous weakness of the political party system in this country as a whole. There is absolutely no evidence to show that all the 14 Samata MPs ever sat together to discuss their strategy vis-a-vis the BJP. If the logic of shelter in the BJP
camp is as strong as Messrs Kumar and Fernandes believe it to be, should they not have made an effort to persuade their colleagues before Mr. Kumar rushed off to the BJP's"massive rally" in Bombay at Mr. Fernandes's behest?
So much for the Samata. But what about the BJP and its calculations in Bihar? Behind the BJP's anxiety to embrace Mr. Kumar in Bihar lies its craven calculation that his pull with the Kurmi caste - accentuated by the feeling that Mr. Laloo Yadav has converted the State into not only "Lalooland" but also "Yadav land" - would enable the Hindutva party to widen its narrow base confined largely to the upper castes. This surely exposes as hollow the BJP's avowed objective of defeating the forces that, in the name of Mandal, are trying to divide the Hindu society along caste lines. That was what the Mandir card was all about. But when political expediency is all, who cares?
(Source: The Hindu, 25 November, 1995)
Vinod Sharma on BSP's Strength
Even on an ideological plane, a strong case can be made out in favor of Mr. Kanshi Ram's presence in evolving third political force. The vote the BSP has retained in UP is secular and only the revival of the social alliance of OBCs, Muslims and Scheduled Castes, which existed when the SP-BSP coalition ruled the State, can effectively keep communal forces at bay.
Moreover, the BSP cut essentially into the traditional Congress support base among the Scheduled Castes to carve a constituency for itself. And in UP, its brief understanding with Mr. Mulayam Singh brought, for the first time, the OBCs closer to the SCs, a social alliance. under tremendous strain since the fall of the SP-BSP Government in Lucknow.
"If the SP and BSP move together in the company of the JD", remarked a leader from Uttar Pradesh, "not only would the communal forces be defeated at the hustings) but the weaker sections of the society would get closer to power" He felt that a viable Third Force can only be created by first identifying the secular forces and then bringing them together under a common banner or in pursuit of a common cause.
(Source: The Hindustan Times, 29 November, 1995)
