Politics of coalition has become the ultimate truth of Indian politics these days. No doubt, a coalition gives the chance and pleasure of running a government, but in the course of time, temporal friendships, deceit and blackmailing turn out to be the cause of brutal termination of a coalition government.
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In most of the cases, a coalition is a principle less, irresponsible and unaccountable alliance of some power-seeking individuals. We have the very current example of Karnataka where the BJP got deceived in a game of ridiculous political farce.
The Indian society is divided into different religions, castes, sects and regional mindsets. Principle-based politics has become a deed on papers only and what are more visible nowadays are parties of castes and castes of parties. There are regional parties having special zones for them. We find regional barons and country heads of various castes. These small and regional groups never hesitate to unabashedly indulge in the act of blackmailing for their own purpose. There is no discussion on the burring and relevant topics of national interest. Agriculture, employment, economic policies, education, public welfare, etc. are out of their agenda. These coalitions have become a severe headache for our nation. The pertinent question arise here :what these characterless coalitions have to offer to our nation? The answer is not hidden from the known fact that these coalitions could not become a medium of national service; rather their main ambition is to achieve power at any cost. the should of India lies in the unity of its diverse culture but the main inspiration for the politics of coalition is to get an easy access to the throne. The Indian culture aims at unifying its people of different sects whole politics keeps an eye on dividing the Indian masses into castes, regions and religions.
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In early post-colonial period, ideologies were meant to unite different sects of people. The Congress was a union of people from different points of view but the Communist Party, the Jansangh, and the Socialist Party were totally based upon their strong ideologies. During the long regime of the Congress, the Jansangh and other parties did not even try to see a day-dream of ruling the country but they were quite dedicated to build a society, rather a nation, based upon nationalism, communalism or socialism. In order to strengthen their ideology among the party members, they used to organize special camps and sessions. Taking their principles as the base, despite the fact that the Congress rules the country, these small parties used to be or better say, were efficient enough to prevent the ruling party from taking any wrong decision in national interest, even being in small numbers in the Parliament.
The first idea of politics of coalition in India came from Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, who advocated the need of uniting the opposition in order to form a non-Congress government. The idea of non-Congress government bloomed and it came into being in many States of India after 1967. Subsequent to the dark period of Indira Gandhi’s infamous Emergency (1975-1977), New Delhi saw the formation of its first non-Congress government- Janata Party Government. it was party only on paper. In fact, it was a loathsome coalition of the socialists, the Jansangh, the Bharitya Lok Dal of Chaudhary Charan Singh and some Congressmen who were not given opportunities in Indira Gandhi’s regime Due to lack co-ordination in ideologies and greed of some coalition members, The Janata Party and its Government, both saw an untimely death. Then Charan Singh took oath with the help of an inauspicious coalition, but was forced to resign even without facing the Parliament for a single sitting as the Prime Minster.
After the Bofors scam, V.P. Singh came to power with the help of the BJP. In order to avoid the communal tension being generated by Advani’s Rathyatra, he dared to stop the Rathyatra. The BJP took it as a breach of coalition dharma and the V.P. Singh Government had to resign. Then again, politics of coalition continued and Chandra Shekhar became the Prime Minister, backed by the Congress, only to continue for a mere four months. The same Congress put H.D. Deve Gowda on the throne and then pulled him down. Again, the Congress showed its faith in L.K. Gujral but his fate was also meant to be the same. Such incidents of mistrust, deceit and leg-pulling have been seen in different States of India at different times. in Karnataka, the sordid drama of the tail wagging the dog has ended with the resignation of B.S. Yeddyurappa-who was sworn in as Chief Minister only for seven days-after being betrayed by partner JD9S) for the second time in six weeks. There can’t be a worse example of desecration of coalition dharma.
All parties talk about socail welfare and national interest. They conceive their opinions and methods as the most appropriate and well-justified. They declare their opponents as corrupt having no ethics and character. Despite all these declarations, they tend to make a coalition with those corrupt and ideologically superficial opponents in order to achieve the power. Mayawati used to criticize the Samajwadi Party, the BJP and the Congress, yet she finally made a coalition with SP and Mulayam Singh Yadav became Chief Minister. Maya-Mulayam clashes led the coalition government towards resignation. Then, Mayawati didn’t hesitate to take the Manuwadi support of BJP to become the Chief Minister. This series continued again and again in 1995, 1997 and 2003, But each coalition government faced the same ill-fate. Take the case of Jharkhand, where thanks to or better say shame to the politics of coalition, an independent MLA has been sworn in as Chief Minister.
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At present, only Left-coalition and the NDA are still existent in the political arena of our country. Left-coalition retains itself in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura only where ideologically similar small parties not only contest in elections but share the power as well. With the statesmanship of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, NDA made a successful coalition and ran an impressive government but this coalition also had faced some hard time and tantrums of its partners like Mamta, Jayalaitha and others as well. Despite the Panchmarhi Summit of the Congress where the party decided to go alone in elections, the Shimla Session put an immense pressure on the party to accept the reality and the relevance of politics of coalition. The present UPA symbolizes the urgency of the politics of coalition.
One has to understand-what are the benefits of a government made as a product of coalition? Small parties indulged in a coalition argue that it saves the huge expenditure of re-election. Quite right but doesn’t the untimely death of coalition government cost a by-election each time? Isn’t it the politics of coalition which makes the nation pay a huge price in the name of MLAs, MPs, chairmen of various committees, government nominated councils and their presidents? The common person has lost faith in politics. All politicians are corrupt, liars, and unaccountable to a common man. And adding to this, the temporal politics of coalition has made the situation even worse. It has become a time of extreme mistrust and confusion-those who are supposed to provide good governance, to respect the Constitution and to build a strong and developed nation, are the best examples of deceit, characterless and jeopardizing the national concerns. Unfortunately the Constitution of India doesn’t provide us with any solution to this incurable disease.
No doubt, an alliance made before or after elections should be given a chance to form the government but its allies will have to make sure that this, government should function for the next five years. Regional and small parties, allying in the coalition should be forced to sign a pact for at least five years and the parties or individuals who break the coalition should be adequately punished with cancellation of recognition of party status or cancellation of membership for an individual in the Parliament. The act of breaking a coalition is nothing but a deceit of public mandate. The time has come when the Congress and the BJP should come forward to tackle this cancerous problem. They are required to relate with the national challenges rather than focusing on regional issues. They both have the august responsibility to safeguard the national interests. No doubt, they possess different ideologies but for the sake of national benefits, they have to think together.
Its a assumed that in politics, there is no permanent rival and no permanent ally but all parties have to pass a censure motion and a strong censure against those who have become enemies of politics and of the nation as well; so that in future, no political party can dare to breach the code of conduct of politics of coalition.