The Hindu : From Pachmarhi to Srinagar

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Wednesday, Jun 04, 2003

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From Pachmarhi to Srinagar

BY REWORKING ITS approach to alliances at the national level, the Congress appears to have begun to come to terms with the need to agree on sharing power at the Centre with smaller parties before building a broad secular coalition against the BJP. At the Srinagar conclave of Congress Chief Ministers, the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi, expressed a readiness to align with like-minded parties both at the Centre and in the States to take on the multiparty National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP. Although the Congress is part of coalition governments in Kerala, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, until now the 1998 Pachmarhi conclave of the party, which viewed coalition politics at the Centre as a transitory phase, was the reference point in all discussions of national-level pre-poll alliances. Without doubt, the new line would make the Congress a more attractive ally for parties such as the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the SP and the RJD have emerged as the principal opposition to the BJP-led alliance, and an overbearing attitude would have fetched the Congress no political dividends. The Left parties, too, would be more comfortable with a Congress that sends out accommodative signals. Although the Congress is still the main opposition to the Left parties in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, there is scope for coordination at the national level as both the CPI (M) and the CPI recognise the need for a secular alternative to the BJP. Even in Tamil Nadu, where the two major regional parties, DMK and AIADMK, have been included in the Union Council of Ministers by the BJP at different times, the Congress could use the carrot of coalition to reach advantageous electoral agreements. In effect, the "yes-to-alliances" line helps the Congress upgrade itself from the third or worse position in some States and directly mount a nationwide challenge to the BJP.

But even now, the Congress seems to see coalitions as a "necessary evil". The BJP, in contrast, made a virtue of its need to form coalitions by stating before the 1999 Lok Sabha election that it would form a coalition government even if it obtained a majority of its own. The BJP masked its need for alliances by speaking of giving expression to regional aspirations in its coalition. For too long, the Congress associated coalition governments with instability. However, over the years, its own experience has proved it wrong. The Congress was unable to form formal pre-poll alliances in Maharashtra, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, but in partnership with smaller parties — NCP, RJD and PDP — it is now able to provide a stable Government in these States. Kerala remains the only instance of a Congress-inclusive Government formed on the basis of a formal pre-poll alliance. But, by talking of the possibility of allying with the SP and the RJD, the Congress is reconciling itself to a non-Kerala model of alliance. Unlike in Kerala, where the Congress is the dominant partner, the party would have to settle for the junior partner status in both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The post-poll experience in Maharashtra, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir has apparently made the Congress realise the importance of being more accommodative in alliance formations before the election.

Lost in this change of line is the decision of Ms. Gandhi to let the Chief Ministers and the PCC presidents finalise the details of the alliances. Actually, this marks a welcome departure from the high command-centric affairs of the Congress. One of the reasons for the decline of the Congress is indeed the alienation of the decision-making high command from the ground realities of the States. It is but natural for the Congress, which is now beginning to understand the importance of the smaller, regional parties in providing an alternative to the BJP, to also concede the value of its own State units and regional chieftains. The years separating Pachmarhi 1998 from Srinagar 2003 do not seem to have been wasted at all.

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