Opinion - Editorials

Winning the vote and losing the debate

IN THE NUMBERS game, the Atal Behari Vajpayee regime has won in the Lok Sabha, as it was expected to, on the shameful `Gujarat communal violence' issue, with the concerted attempt by the Opposition to get the House to censure the administration for its "failure" to ensure the security of the minority communities falling through by a substantial margin. Indeed, the fate of the censure motion, not very much in doubt from day one, was sealed the day the BJP secured the support of the Bahujan Samaj Party, as part of a hurriedly struck deal on sharing power in Uttar Pradesh. On real test however were the `secular' partners and friends of the ruling coalition who have been as vehement in their condemnation of the Gujarat communal carnage and as unsparing in their criticism of the Narendra Modi Government as the Opposition was. More specifically, the crucial question was whether they — the likes of the Telugu Desam Party and the Trinamool Congress — would be willing to end their partnership with the BJP and of their collusive role in its brazen pursuit of the Sangh Parivar's divisive agenda. That, in the event, these parties, despite all their rhetoric, refused to stand up and be counted at the time of reckoning exposes the hypocrisy of their professions of commitment to safeguarding the country's secular and pluralist ethos. The only exception, of course, was the four-member Lok Janshakti Party (of Ram Vilas Paswan) and even here its break with the NDA is attributed primarily to Mr. Paswan's other political compulsions stemming from the BSP-BJP tie-up. While the TDP staged a walkout before the vote was taken and the National Conference abstained from voting, the Trinamool Congress voted with the Government.

In a parliamentary system of democracy, one cannot wish away the numbers game or, for that matter, political gamesmanship. But surely these cannot be the obsessive concern or sole strategic determinants of the rival camps in a legislature where the issues at stake are of critical importance, affecting the very foundation on which the constitutional edifice stands, and where the national consensus on basic secular and democratic values is under vicious attack — as it happens in the case of Gujarat under Mr. Modi. It was indeed a cruel irony that much of the 16-hour debate was spent in scoring cheap political points and mudslinging. Although the text of the censure motion provided a much wider scope for hauling up the Vajpayee Government over the `minorities' issue, the debate was by and large restricted to the happenings in Gujarat, with the Government regrettably making no serious attempt to counter the substantive arguments of the other side — such as, for the removal of Mr. Modi and for the invocation of Article 355 by the Centre. This stonewalling by the Vajpayee regime is reflective of the BJP's Panaji policy line of harking back to the hardcore Hindutva, a key element of which is a cynical plan to try and capitalise on the communal polarisation that followed the Godhra massacre and the revenge killings thereafter.

A tangible outcome of the debate is of course the Rs. 150-crore rehabilitation package Mr. Vajpayee announced for the violence victims. Welcome as the gesture certainly is, there are bound to be serious misgivings about the distribution of package benefits, given the Modi administration's perceived anti-minority mindset. Whether it is ending the vicious spiral of communal violence, which is yet to be fully controlled even two months after the Godhra outrage, or restoring the badly ruptured communal amity or initiating measures for rehabilitation and resettlement of the victims in a fair manner, the continuance of Mr. Modi in office will be a major impediment. Hence it is that the demand for his removal resounded in the Lok Sabha during the marathon debate, highlighted as much by many of the NDA constituents as by the Opposition, and it just cannot be swept under the carpet of the defeated censure motion.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Winning the vote and losing the debate
• A flawed `mandate' in Pakistan
• Living with the new world order
• Le Pen's rise
• Govt. wins, but emerges weaker
• Revive MEA's Historical Division
• After the vote
• The electoral cake
• An anti-climax
• A charade
• Wrong opinion
• Opportunistic visit
• Don't tax passes
• Congress and Sikhs
• Impracticable suggestion
• A banking stalwart

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu