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INDIA/SOUTH ASIA-Indian Article Analyzes Deal Between BJP, Congress To Take on Small Parties

Released on 2013-03-11 00:00 GMT

Email-ID 2585918 Date 2011-08-14 12:37:18 From dialogbot@smtp.stratfor.com To dialog-list@stratfor.com

INDIA/SOUTH ASIA-Indian Article Analyzes Deal Between BJP, Congress To Take on Small Parties





Indian Article Analyzes Deal Between BJP, Congress To Take on Small

Parties

Article by Venkitesh Ramakrishnan: "Credibility Crisis" - Frontline Online

Saturday August 13, 2011 13:37:02 GMT

New Delhi: The "deal" struck by the Congress-led United Progressive

Alliance (UPA) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National

Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the context of the discussion on the issue of

price rise in the Lok Sabha when the monsoon session of Parliament opened

was, in many ways, symptomatic of the larger political climate in the

country where the business of politics has been overwhelmed by the trend

of seeing politics as business. For the record, it was stated that the two

mainstream parties had discussed issues relating to the smooth conduct of

Parliament and, following this, the government had agreed to a discu ssion

on price rise and inflation under Rule 184 entailing a division in the

House and that the BJP would reword its notice, which would now express

concern over price rise and inflation instead of censuring the government.

Thus the BJP's resolution on the issue of price rise became a joint

resolution, where division of votes did not amount to a confrontation or

even a real assertion of a political or policy position. The reworded

notice stated: "Despite repeated discussions on price rise in the House,

the burden of price rise on the common man continues. Expressing deep

concern over price rise, the House calls upon the government to take

immediate effective steps to check inflation that will give relief to the

common man."



A closer look at the evolution of this "compromise" and its qualitative

dimensions shows that beyond the formal pronouncements about the concern

to ensure the smooth conduct of Parliament, the leadership of the two

parties had d iscussed several other factors, including the role of

smaller parties during voting in Parliament. They dwelt on the possible

contours of the discussion and agreed that a confrontationist voting

should be avoided. The apparent reason for identifying this path was the

"bargaining tactics on political, economic and other issues" employed by

regional forces such as the Samajwadi Party (S.P.) and the Bahujan Samaj

Party (BSP) whenever there was voting in Parliament on an issue.



It was reportedly pointed out that these forces made use of such occasions

to push their agendas and that this compelled both the ruling side and the

opposition to "pay a price" periodically. It was also emphasised that the

time had come for the two mainstream parties to strive and avoid this

situation. The joint resolution was evolved on the basis of this

understanding.



The thrust of the argument was that smaller parties were trying to make

politics a business. Ironicall y, the big two reached a consensus on the

issue when they themselves followed the trend. The political and

organisational challenges the two parties faced in recent days underscore

the primacy of this factor.



Take the case of the BJP, which was weak-kneed before a defiant State

leader even as it wanted to remove him as Chief Minister. The Congress was

equally swayed by this factor when it tried to fend off accusations

against its top leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home

Minister P. Chidambaram, in corruption scandals. While the names of the

two leaders figured in the developments in the 2G spectrum scam case, that

of Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi,

came up in a criminal case relating to the charge of bribing members for

votes during a trial of strength in the Lok Sabha in 2008.



The BJP's national leadership decided to remove B.S. Yeddyurappa, the

party's first Chief Minister in a southern State, from off ice in

Karnataka after the Lokayukta indicted him in his report submitted on July

27. Lokayukta Santhosh Hegde held Yeddyurappa guilty of promoting illegal

mining and securing financial gratification for the same, in the process

causing tremendous depletion of natural resources, damage to the

environment, and loss to the State exchequer. The BJP decided to remove

him in order to gain the u pper hand in its campaign against corruption in

the UPA government. The task was not easy as Yeddyurappa, who had enjoyed

the top brass' support twice when he faced political storms, resisted the

move. The political and organisational clout and the money and muscle

power he commanded became evident from his defiance of the party's diktat.

The BJP managed to make him step down only after the candidate of his

choice, D.V. Sadananda Gowda, was nominated to be his successor and

Yeddyurappa himself was made the State party president. The central

leadership meekly agreed also to the other demand s put forth by

Yeddyurappa.



The Congress leadership faced a challenge when former Union

Telecommunications Minister A. Raja, in the course of his arguments in the

2G scam case, asserted that all his actions with regard to the spectrum

allocation were taken with the knowledge of Manmohan Singh and P.

Chidambaram, who was then Finance Minister. Several bureaucrats accused in

the case, including R.K. Chandolia, who was Raja's secretary, presented

similar arguments.



The name of Ahmed Patel came up essentially on account of the Delhi High

Court's castigation of the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police for failing to

carry out proper investigations into the cash-for-votes case. This

triggered some hurried action by the police. They arrested Sanjiv Saxena,

former secretary of former S.P. leader Amar Singh, and Suhail Hindustani,

former worker of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha. In his deposition, Saxena gave

details of Amar Singh's role in the cash-for-votes operations that ens

ured the survival of Manmohan Singh's government. Hindustani also

identified Amar Singh as a major player but added that Ahmed Patel too had

a role.



In the meanwhile, both the Congress and the BJP sought to tilt the balance

of power in their favour and take the moral high ground. In the run-up to

the monsoon session, sections of the BJP, including its leader in the Lok

Sabha Sushma Swaraj, came out with strong statements about "going all out

to expose" the Prime Minister and his accomplices. But the Lokayukta's

indictment of Yeddyurappa upset its plans. So much so that Manmohan Singh

asserted that "we are not afraid of discussing issues of corruption" and

that "the opposition also has too many skeletons in its cupboard". In her

initial reaction to Manmohan Singh's comment, Sushma Swaraj said: "Let us

see who attacks whom from tomorrow. The government is free to bring out

all the arrows in the quiver, let us see who has more arrows in its

quiver." But there was no eager follow-up on this as the Parliament

session started. Instead, what came up was a compromise - a joint

declaration. Clearly, the two big parties sought to downplay their own

transgressions and gloss over the collapse of their political and moral

authority.



COMMONWEALTH GAMES SCAM



In fact, the monsoon session began when almost every part of the nation

was rife with corruption scandals. The Congress government in Delhi led by

three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was criticised by the Comptroller

and Auditor General of India (CAG) for causing immense loss to the

exchequer in the conduct of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The CAG pointed

out financial irregularities in the purchase of low-floor buses,

construction of bus shelters, street lighting, and so on. The report said

street lighting alone caused a loss of over Rs.31 crore. The Public Works

Department bought imported luminaries, which cost Rs.32,000, while locally

ava ilable ones could have been obtained at Rs.15,160 a piece. There was

specific mention of Dikshit's role when the CAG pointed out that the

bidder, Spaceage Switchgear, had been disqualified by the PWD of the State

government but was found to be eligible after an appeal was made to the

Chief Minister. The Shunglu Committee, set up under the directions of the

Prime Minister, had stated that there was an overall wastage of Rs.256

crore in street lighting and street-scaping for the Games.



Uttar Pradesh, known for its mu ltifarious corruption scandals promoted by

successive governments, witnessed yet another case in the form of the

multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam. Informal estimates

are that approximately Rs.3,500 crore of NRHM funds have been

misappropriated in the past five years. The murder of three senior health

officials is reportedly related to the scam. Cases containing charges of

corruption, misappropriation of funds and favouritism have emerge d even

in Bihar, a State that the ruling Janata Dal (United)-BJP combine has

claimed to be a "bastion of probity in governance, led by Mr Clean Nitish

Kumar".



Commenting on the emergence of these corruption cases in Bihar after a gap

of approximately five years, a political observer in Patna, considered

close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, pointed out that all associates of

the ruling combine could not be expected to share Nitish Kumar's vision

for Bihar or his commitment to probity. "It is well known that most of

those who join politics in the majority of mainstream parties have the

objective of enjoying the spoils of power. There are many such people in

Bihar's ruling alliance too. Nitish Kumar had prevented them from actively

pursuing this objective during his first term in power. They went along

with the Chief Minister then because they too had concerns about the

survival of the first government as well as its re-election. Now that the

opposition l ed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad and Lok

Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ramvilas Paswan is weak, these spoils-hunters

have gained confidence. In all probability, they will persist with their

plans with greater vigour and one will see more such cases and allegations

coming up," he said.



In this political climate, Parliament is bound to witness during the

current session the introduction of the Lokpal Bill, which has left out

the Prime Minister and the judiciary from the Lokpal's purview. The move

will undoubtedly be hailed by the ruling party as a shining chapter in the

history of the Congress and the UPA and their battle against corruption.

And the BJP and its partners in the National Democratic Alliance are bound

to question the appropriateness of leaving out the Prime Minister from the

ambit of the Bill.



The Left parties, who have by and large not succumbed to 'politics as

business', have sought to raise issues relating to the strange co

operation between the Congress and the BJP as also questions relating to

the rise of business interests in politics. But the lack of numerical

strength in Parliament has imposed severe limitations on the impact and

spread of their voices. Civil society groups led by Anna Hazare, who

forced the UPA government to come up with a law against corruption, have

rejected the draft Lokpal Bill. There are indications that a resolute

political establishment is all set to sideline their initiatives. All this

may generate some sound and fury both within Parliament and outside but is

unlikely to alter the trend of politics as business.



(Description of Source: Chennai Frontline in English -- National news

magazine. Sister publication to the respected Chennai-based national daily

The Hindu. URL: http://www.frontlineonnet.com)



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