Congress, allies and coalition drama

The era of coalition politics in India began from 1989 onwards. That year witnessed the National Front Government of V P Singh coming to power with the unlikely support of the BJP from one side and the left parties on the other.

The National Front Government was compared to a lame man walking on two unequal baisakhis (crutches). Since then coalition governments have become the norm of Indian politics. The UPA I and II governments have both been troubled by their allies. Remarkably both UPA governments have been as hobbled as the lame National Front Government.

In UPA I, the left was the obstacle in the way of economic reforms. UPA II sans left support was supposed to be more fleet-footed, especially in terms of economic policy and reforms. On the contrary, the run up to the year 2011 and the year itself as a whole has been rough for the Congress-led UPA, with the government lurching and lumbering from the 2G spectrum scam to the Anna Hazare extravaganza to the introduction of the Lokpal Bill.

Interestingly, on major issues such as the Lokpal and FDI in retail, it has actually been the role of the UPA’s allies,  Trinamool Congress and DMK, that has proved to be the major stumbling block. The BJP led opposition has failed to capitalise on the government’s many inconsistencies and flip-flops. Considering that the major source of the government’s worries has actually not been the opposition, but its own allies and a stra­nge political entity, Team Anna, that is difficult to characterise and is readily subsumed under the catch-all term civil society, it is interesting to note how badly the Congress has dealt with all this.

Cong’s strange ways

On the Lokpal, the government’s hand was being forced by the truculent Team Anna, leading to the introduction of the Lokpal Bill only to be shot down by the numerous amendments suggested by the BJP and, more significantly, the firm opposition of the Trinamool to the Lokayukta provision of the bill. Indeed, handling Mamta Banerjee seems to have become more difficult for the Congress ever since she left Delhi to become the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Where exactly has the Congress gone wrong in dealing with its allies? Remarkably, the Congress seems to make an issue out of those things that could probably be overlooked and overlooked those things where more resolute action mi­ght be needed. In the 2G spectrum scam the Congress, especially the Prime Minister, maintained a studied silence on A Raja’s resignation and arrest, all the wh­ile reiterating that the revelations would not affect its alliance with the DMK. In the case of Mamata’s Trinamool, the Congress decided to make a hue and cry over the renaming of Indira Bhavan as a knee jerk response to Mamta’s opposition to FDI in retail. This stra­nge behaviour of taking resolute action and exhibiting firmness where it is not needed, and remaining indecisive where decisiveness might be required, has set the tone and tenor of the Congress’s relati­ons with its allies.

It is again this strange behaviour that allows the Congress’ allies to throw tantrums and make dem­ands which the Congress then despairingly describes as unreasonable.

UPA II was widely perceived as being able to go ahead full throttle, especially on matters such as economic policy and reforms. However, the very sorry figure that the government has cut is one of being mired in inaction with a faltering economic growth rate, a sliding rupee and rising inflation. A feasible course of action for coalition governments might be to tread slowly on areas of contention with allies. Yet, that is precisely where the Congress decides to plod through heavily, an example being FDI in retail.

For the Congress, the resistance of the Trinamool and DMK on FDI in retail has been the most crucial in terms of its backtracking. When the allies prove to be obstinate, the Congress throws up its hands in despair to declare that it wanted to go ahead with a certain measure but was frustratingly immobilised by them. What this shows is an inability to negotiate astutely with allies and then to use the difficult behaviour of the ally as an excuse for ineptitude. The Congress and its allies exhibit how coalitions have become devices of rank opportunism, shorn of principles, dispensing with even the minimum courtesies, yet clinging on to each other. The Congress as the leading party of the coalition sometimes tries to display some measure of maturity.

That is also something that it does with great difficulty. When it conceded ground in elder brother like manner to its other ally, the NCP, on seat sharing in the forthcoming Mumbai civic polls, this became in the words of a Congressman, ‘dancing to the tunes’ of the smaller party.

(The writer is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.)

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