Events & Issues

New Delhi, 5 May 2014

“Outside Support”

POLITICS OF TEMPORARY SHORE UP

By Dr S Saraswathi

(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)

A ‘Third Front’ government and ‘outside support’ is turning out to be a conundrum for the Congress. On the other hand, the BJP is firm and insists that talk of a rag-tag coalition with even ‘outside support’ is a charter for chaos. The Left, which was initiating a third front is now heard saying there is no question of joining hands with the Congress to even prevent the BJP from forming a Government. The parties and their politics have indeed left the voter thoroughly confused.  

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With elections in the last phase, a jittery Congress is speaking in different voices. Its senior leader Salman Khurshid hinted that the party would not hesitate to support even the Third Front government, if required, to keep away the NDA government under Narendra Modi. This course is the third possibility suited to the Congress – the first being a UPA (III) government (remote possibility though), and the second a UPA government with the support of Third Front members. Evidently, the object is to somehow to see the BJP and its allies out of the race for forming a government. However, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has ruled out supporting any front after the polls!

But where is the “Third Front”? Recall, the Left parties particularly, the CPM, took the initiative a few months ago to form a non-Congress non-BJP front. Its key constituents included the Samajwadi Party, JD (U), JD (Secular), Biju Janata Dal, AIADMK besides the four Left parties. All were averse to label the alliance “The Third Front” perhaps in view of the odious failure of the National Front governments in 1980s and the United Front governments in 1990s – both formed for excluding both the Congress and the BJP.  The attempted combination failed to conclude an electoral understanding.

The very idea of taking the support of either the Congress or the BJP to form a non-Congress, non-BJP government sounds a contradiction in itself, a self-defeating idea. It is but an open admission that alliance politics is nothing more than a race for political power. The logic in this may appeal to non-political common people.

But politicians think otherwise. It is reported that the chief of the National Congress Party, an important member of the UPA Government, observed that the effort to cobble together a Third Front must be “collective” in which the Congress would have to play a decisive role. A funny situation indeed for the Congress to help form a non-Congress non-BJP coalition Government!

This idea is banking on the hope that strong regional parties and leaders would feel more comfortable with “outside support” of the Congress than the BJP. The reason was an expectation that the Congress would make a unifying appeal acceptable to regional parties and would be more accommodative in politics – a wishful thinking based on perceptions.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister is reported to have made a rather shocking suggestion in this context that regional parties should not be allowed to contest national elections.  He cited the practice in Germany.

Such a step would have serious political consequences in India where there are nearly   50 regional/State parties and only six national parties. Most of the regional parties have emerged after independence and as a result of regional politics. They have a role to play  in this country of diversities and have been playing that role.  

Multi-party system is a political necessity in India. A national party has to cater to regional needs and ambitions in order to gain the confidence of the States. In such a political situation, alliances are also a political necessity in various forms like electoral understanding, formation of  fronts, “outside support”, “issue-based support”,  etc.

Histories of party politics in many federal States speak of similar situations. Major national parties in Canada, Australia, and Switzerland are federations of regional parties.  Canadian parties are strongly provincial in organization.  State or local influence is said to be quite strong on national policy-making in the US.

Therefore, India will have to tackle party politics in its own way. National parties face organizational problems and regional parties encounter leadership problems. Result is perennial split in parties adding to number. They are part of the present party politics.

To the Congress, the option of supporting a Third Front is politically a wiser course than allowing the NDA to form the Government.  Hence, it may consider hugging Third Front parties forgetting even unforgettable challenges and insults exchanged during election campaigns.

For the NDA, it is a period of anxiety to wait and watch how many of the prospective partners of the so-called Third Front would desert the Front and come under its umbrella.  Possibility of such migration would depend much on the electoral performance of the NDA and its closeness to the seat of power.

Considered from any angle, the course of action of non-UPA and non-NDA members of the Third Front is linked with their individual electoral gains and the performance of the different fronts.

“Non-Congress, Non-BJP” obsession is certainly not a laughable idea. In Britain, a political party by name “Populist Alliance” was formed in 2006 by a number of smaller parties joining hands to push forward a populist agenda. It was also registered with the Election Commission of Britain.  Its avowed object was to provide a viable alternative to the three entrenched political parties – Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrats.  These three parties were said to be weak with no guts “to make long-term decisions for the good of the country over the short-term opinion polls on which their party politics supposedly survive”.

“Traditional values, fresh ideas” was the motto of the Popular Alliance. Its agenda included restoration of traditional British culture, establishing the supremacy of the British law, introduction of economic reforms, sticking to a British policy over that of the  European Union, etc.

The place of the Third Front in India is also described by some parties, particularly by the Biju Janata Dal, as one of “equidistance from the Congress and the BJP”.   But, the CPI in 1999 said that such a policy was not sustainable and was  a result of under-estimation of the “threat of communalism” deemed as a ground reality. Indeed, there was at that time some differences within the communist parties regarding the role of the Third Front.

In 2013, while seriously working for formation of a Third Front,  the CPI(M) called upon the prospective members of the Front to give up political opportunism and power, and form a government that would “implement alternative policies  which will significantly improve the livelihood conditions of our people and create a better India for all Indians”.

This sounds good, but how can a group depending on “outside support” without any commitment to policy or party deliver?  Outside support, even if it is unconditional, cannot be blindfolded.  It is bound to be issue-based and also “time based” whether stated in so many words or not.

As such, the Indian model of “outside support” is tantamount to “temporary support” indicating that it is the waiting period for preparation for fresh elections for the “support giver”. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)