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Crisis in the party system

THE CONGRESS PARTY in the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly has split once again. While the reaction of its leaders to this — charging the Speaker, Kesrinath Tripathi, with partisan behaviour — is indeed predictable, there is no way the failure of the party leadership to keep its flock together can be glossed over in this case. The fact that at least eight of the 24 Congress MLAs could walk over with such ease to a combine in which the BJP is an important player is reflective of the total lack of ideological conviction even among those handpicked by the party's leaders as its representatives in the State Assembly. Add to this the fact that the party's managers in Lucknow were unaware of the developments until the rebels gathered in the Speaker's chamber to announce their decision to float their own outfit and the picture — of how far the party leadership is alienated from its ranks — is complete.

A large number in the Congress Legislature Party in Uttar Pradesh had protested against the high command's prescription that the party shall stay out of the Mayawati Government and also away from any manoeuvres by Mulayam Singh Yadav to unsettle the present dispensation and form an alternative by gathering the necessary numbers from among the disenchanted MLAs in the ruling combine. This stand by the Congress high command was certainly not in tune with the agenda of self-preservation that tops the list of priorities for a whole lot of independent MLAs as well as a number of the Congress MLAs. This, indeed, is the immediate cause for the development in Lucknow.

The sequence of events — the rebels managed to work with surgical precision and ensured secrecy to such an extent that the CLP leadership could do nothing to prevent the split; and then the idea of roping in Akilesh Singh, who stands expelled from the Congress, to ensure that their strength added up to eight, one third of 24 that was needed to evade disqualification from the State Assembly — and the sense of urgency shown by the Assembly Speaker in deciding on their plea for being recognised as a separate group are all evidence enough to show the determination with which all of them worked towards decimating the party system. The reward, in terms of ministerial or other office, that has been offered to the eight Congress MLAs, is yet to be made public. The Congress Legislature Party, after all, had undergone a similar split even earlier in Uttar Pradesh and all those who walked out then to ensure the survival of the BJP Government were made Ministers. It is another matter that most of them, including their leader, Naresh Aggarwal, lost the elections subsequently, revealing the extent of anger against their moves among the voters. That such an experience did not deter the MLAs from switching parties (with an eye on the immediate gains that would accrue in the form of ministerial berths and the spoils that come with it) reflects a new low in moral values in the arena of electoral politics.

The BJP Legislature Party too is not free from problems of a similar nature in Uttar Pradesh itself as it was revealed in the past few months with a number of its MLAs revolting against the continuing alliance with the BSP. In their case too, the revolt is due to their exclusion from the State Cabinet and has nothing to do with ideological positions. The haste with which Mr. Tripathi acted in the present case and allowed the Speaker's office to be abused for partisan political games, even while he continues to sit on a notice by the BJP seeking disqualification of some of its MLAs who had revolted, is yet another matter for concern. The quasi-judicial powers vested in the office of Speaker have been abused to such an extent (and Mr. Tripathi's contribution to this list is ample) that the very spirit of the provision in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, based on the premise that the Speaker shall resist all temptations to play partisan games, seems to have been negated.

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