Third Front? For whom, and for what?

Mulayam Singh and Chandrababu Naidu have joined hands! Both created myths of being architects of building huge conglomerates in their respective states, both talk endlessly about having created the international standard infrastructure for business and foreign investment. Both have failed?one less, and the other completely. Naidu created many a buzz about being the future hope of India, about being the prototype chief minister with a modern mind and eager to override the past lethargy in an attempt to accelerate the delivery of goods and services across the rural and urban space of Andhra Pradesh. He lost not merely the rural vote, but Hyderabad as well! This, after Clinton had trekked out there to endorse him!

Mulayam Singh, when he took charge, had a galaxy of India?s business leaders with him, promising to change the face of criminality-ridden UP by generating vast investment and new businesses. All that we have seen during this tenure has been politicking and a continuation of all that he promised to do away with?extortion, killings and corruption. A state that was once, not so long ago, energised with ideas, institutions of learning, skills and much culture, has deteriorated into a badland, as it is now called. Lying latent and waiting to be re-ignited are all its strengths.

This ?Third Front? promises all that India does not need at this stage of her life. Failed adventures, an agenda that is based on a rhetoric that belongs to a past era and age, confrontational, personalised politics, all the things that India has had to patiently endure for decades. All parties have played a role in this larger scheme, but those who want to forge yet another front or coalition will only compel this country to mark time, take some steps back, lose ground across the board and wait for the disintegration that will follow the base and irrelevant anti-national squabbles disparate leaders will surely indulge in. They have proved themselves to be selfish, incompetent as managers and implementers of their own policies, norms and laws and, therefore, exploitative of the citizens of India.

It seems as though this ?front? of aspiring prime ministers and central government leaders, are determined to force the hand of Manmohan Singh to dissolve Parliament and call for elections. They are thrilled over the possibility that in the forthcoming state elections, the Congress may well lose and, therefore, they will lose central control too. This could well be limited political thinking that is stuck in the warp of yore. Maybe, India will vote differently for who they want to rule their state, based on local issues and needs and those they want at the Centre handling national issues such as fiscal policy, defence and foreign policy. The Congress could grab this God-given opportunity and go to the people with a manifesto that rises beyond regional politics to play sootradhar, bringing together and representing national needs.

If the Left parties join this grand coalition and not just hang about outside the conglomerate, supporting some things and threatening to topple the government by opposing others, the ensuing chaos will treacherously harm development and growth in every sector of the economy. The CPI-M is bound to win the election in Bengal, but if it loses ground in that victory, its leaders will begin to act more petulantly than ever before at the Centre. The flame of a dying wick always increases before it fades away!

Jayalalithaa is expected to sweep the polls in Tamil Nadu. She is, apparently, another possible member of the ?Front? that is being dreamed up. Mulayam Singh and Chandrababu Naidu, most definitely, need her to put them straight, keep them on their toes! Deja vu is scary at the best of times, but when signalling the future of Indian politics, the fear dimensions become gargantuan.

India will celebrate her 60th birthday on August 15 next year. From June 1975 till recently, the corrosion of the political space has been unprecedented. Then, some years ago, there was a glimmer of hope for change. A new generation of Indians had reached adulthood. They have today become the majority. They are not carrying the baggage of past political shenanigans that were oriented to consolidate and perpetuate personal power and aggrandisement. Young Indians have another aspiration. They want to move on and compete and achieve. They do not want the dole, nor the horrors of stagnation that accompany it. Third Front?

For whom, and for what?