For an alternative

There has been a major advance in the direction of evolving an alternative to the BJP-led Government, but there is still some way to go on this front.

VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN
in New Delhi

THE Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha (RLM), which has been advocating a broad front of all forces opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party in order to topple the coalition Government at the Centre, is exasperated over the political approaches of two women leaders. RLM leaders wonder why Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary Jayalalitha have failed to seize the opportunity and come to an understanding.

A senior RLM leader, giving his assessment of the current political situation, told Frontline two days after the inauguration of the Morcha's office in New Delhi on August 17: "It is a blow-hot-blow-cold drama that is being played by the two leaders who have a penchant for keeping the audience waiting. The one major problem with the script of this play is that neither of the two players can bring it to a climax alone. They need the consent of the other, and the dilemma is that neither is able to agree on ways and means to do it."

The RLM's convening of a meeting on August 16, supported by almost all the non-BJP parties including the Congress(I) and the Left parties, is considered a major step in the direction of evolving an alternative to the BJP-led Government. The meeting was called to plan protests against the Shiv Sena-BJP Government in Maharashtra for its rejection of the Justice Srikrishna Commission Report on the communal riots in Mumbai in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

SANDEEP SAXENA
RJP leader Sankarsinh Vaghela addressing a meeting of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha in New Delhi on August 19. Looking on are (from left) Buta Singh, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh.

The presence of two Congress(I) leaders, Hanumanthappa and P.J. Kurien, as also Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy at the meeting gave the impression that the non-BJP forces were finally getting their act together. Subramanian Swamy claimed that he had Jayalalitha's consent to attend the meeting. The letter of support issued by Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and the participation of E. Ahamed, general secretary of the Indian Union Muslim League, an ally of the Congress(I) in Kerala, were considered significant in the context of the RLM's proposal to form a broad anti-BJP platform, consisting of the Congress(I), the constituents of the United Front and the RLM itself.

The realisation among many U.F. constituents that the recent statements of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) reflected a softening of its stand vis-a-vis the BJP, was expected to facilitate this alignment for the reason that the U.F. will no longer be handicapped with the obligation to protect the DMK from a Congress(I) offensive on the basis of the Jain Commission's Final Report on the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. This apart, the show of solidarity by different parties came against the background of reports that Sonia Gandhi had started discussions on the "political situation in the country" with Opposition leaders such as Surjeet, Samajwadi Party (S.P.) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and even Jayalalitha.

A day after the RLM-sponsored meeting, the Morcha's national office was inaugurated and one more regional force, the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) of Gujarat led by former Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, joined the front. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) of Bihar, the Telugu Desam party (Lakshmi Parvathi) of Andhra Pradesh and individual leaders such as former Union Minister Buta Singh had joined the RLM earlier.

SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
Congress (I) president Sonia Gandhi.

The speakers at the inauguration of the office, who included RLM leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav, president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), were optimistic that the end of the Government led by the "communal BJP" was imminent. Amar Singh, the RLM spokesperson, claimed that the front could take the credit for creating an atmosphere conducive to the rallying of all anti-BJP forces.

They asserted that the time was not far when a broad anti-communal front would oust the Vajpayee Government.

However, this perception did not last long. Within the next 24 hours, news came from Chennai that the negotiations between the Congress(I) and the AIADMK were not progressing satisfactorily. Sonia Gandhi had apparently deputed Andhra Pradesh Congress(I) Committee president Dr. Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy for holding talks with Jayalalitha. The talks were reported to have been grounded on account of the conditions laid down by the AIADMK leader. According to sources in the Congress(I), the AIADMK leader had agreed that her principal demand, the removal of the DMK Government in Tamil Nadu, could wait, but the portfolios for her party in the alternative Ministry should be decided before she could think of her next move. The Congress(I)'s position was that any such promise could be made only after the AIADMK dropped out of the BJP Ministry.

Certain other developments, related particularly to the Congress(I), were also responsible for the setback to the efforts to bring down the BJP-led Government. One of them was a statement made in a television interview by Sharad Pawar, Congress(I) Working Committee(I) (CWC) member and leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, that in the event of the formation of a non-BJP Government, the Congress(I) will have to seek the views of its alliance partners on the issue of prime ministership. Although what Pawar said was logical in terms of the political practice of running coalition governments, Sonia loyalists such as Arjun Singh branded it as a challenge to the authority of the party president.

What seemed to have aggravated the acrimony over Pawar's statement was an observation by former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar that Sonia Gandhi should not be considered for the Prime Minister's post. Chandra Shekhar's closeness to both Pawar and the RLM leadership reinforced the surmise of the Sonia loyalists that the two leaders and the RLM three were working in tandem to undermine Sonia Gandhi's rise to the Prime Minister's post.

All this, along with the efforts of the BJP leadership to work out a rapprochement with the AIADMK, has definitely dampened the drive to bring the Vajpayee Government down. Still, the political calculations of the RLM, the Congress(I) as well as sections of the United Front such as the Communist Party of India (CPI) continue to be based on the premise that all anti-BJP forces will have to come together sooner or later to take up the responsibility of running the government.

The Congress(I)'s move to press Home Minister L.K. Advani to initiate further inquiries against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on the basis of the Jain Commission Report is evidently aimed at developing better relations with the AIADMK.

Talking to mediapersons in Guwahati on August 22, Sonia Gandhi repeated that the Congress(I) was ready to undertake the task of providing an alternative if the Vajpayee Government collapsed on its own. She added that the Congress(I) realised the need to have a coalition government at the present juncture, although the party's ultimate objective was to have one-party rule. More specifically, she said that the Congress(I) could have an alliance even with the Left parties in spite of their disagreements on several policy matters. The only qualification that she made with regard to joining an alliance was that the Congress(I) would not team up with the AIADMK if the latter put forward any conditions for doing so. CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan has expressed his party's readiness to support a Congress(I)-led alternative in spite of the disagreements that the Left parties have with the Congress(I), especially on matters of economic policy.

ANU PUSHKARNA
CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

The perception within the RLM, despite the reverses its campaign to bring down the BJP-led Government has suffered, is that the AIADMK will have no option but to walk out of the Vajpayee Ministry and that the Congress(I) will think in terms of either leading a coalition or supporting an RLM-led ministry from outside. The RLM leadership considered the second option as more viable because a section of the Congress(I) still had doubts about whether the Congress(I) would be able to run the Government in the way it wanted in the company of disparate allies. This section, consisting mainly of Sonia loyalists, agree that the Congress(I) should strive to form a Government led by itself only after the October-November Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Mizoram. According to Congress(I) sources, the party's assessment is that it stands a good chance of winning the elections in all the four States. To lead a Central Government at this stage would mean allowing negative effects of incumbency to have an impact on the Congress(I)'s chances in the elections, this section argues. In terms of inner-party politics, Sonia loyalists are of the view that a resounding victory in the Assembly polls will complete Sonia Gandhi's domination of the party and lessen the influence of leaders such as Sharad Pawar.

However, other leaders such as Pawar and former party vice-president Jitendra Prasada have reportedly contended that the Congress(I) can fare better with a friendly government at the Centre.

By all indications, a final decision on this issue will be taken at the brain-storming session of the party scheduled for the first week of September at Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh. The RLM leadership hopes that the developments before the session, both within the Congress(I) and outside, will put enough pressure on Sonia Gandhi to accept the idea of a friendly government at the Centre.

For this to happen, the primary requirement is a fresh round of acrimony between the BJP and its allies, especially the AIADMK. Given the AIADMK leadership's mercurial nature, the RLM's hopes could materialise.

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