THIRD FRONT BLUES AGAIN

By Rao Malladi
New Delhi ( Surya March 2, 2007): The latest talk in political circles here is bound to bring smile back to Chandrababu Naidu, the Telugu Desam party’s supremo, who wants to make it big. And the talk is about the Third Front – the non-Congress, the non-BJP alliance of comrades, socialists, and pseudo socialists.

Return of Akali Dal in Punjab and the BJP in Uttarakhand has revived the hopes of die-hard Third Front fans. They feel that the Congress has not done enough in the past two years to checkmate the saffronites. “Otherwise, how could the BJP manage to bounce back”, these circles ask.

They have a point going by the Punjab results. The BJP did exceedingly well in towns though it has benefited from a negative vote for the Congress. Uttarakhand story is no different. It is a two – party state primarily. The Congress has failed to cash in on its track record. The BJP played its cards well despite open squabbles between Bhuvanchandra Khanduri, the chief minister in the waiting and Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the state party chief and, CM hopeful. On their part, the Congressmen proved to be their own enemies in many constituencies.

It is too early to say anything definite about the Third Front idea. Much would depend on the outcome of Uttar Pradesh elections. If Samajwadi Party overcomes the limitations of anti-incumbency, Mulayam will be a rallying point. He has been made a ‘martyr’ in a manner of speaking and that may stand him in good stead, according to Amar Singh, his lieutenant.

Even if the BJP makes it big in the state, as many political pundits expect, the Third Front concept will take shape. In that sense UP holds the key to the politics of Third Front or United Front call what you may.

Prakash Kart, the orthodox communist at the helm of CPI (M) has been an ardent fan of Third Front. If he has not pursued his pet theme that has more to do with the circumstances that gave birth to the Congress led UPA. “When the time comes, we will think about it”, Karat has said.

“That time is close by”, circles close to the Left parties say.

According to them, it is time for the Left to weigh the cost of being seen as allies of the Congress and its policies. And they argue that anger against the Congress policies have brought the Akali Dal to power in Punjab. Implicit in the argument is that similar fate could await the Congress at the national level.

But the general elections are at least two years away and that give breathing time for the Congress to put correctives in place. Already Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has acted on these concerns and accepted the Marxist prescription for instance halting the futures trade in pulses.

Communist watchers say it is in the interest of the Left to be wary of their alliance with the Congress. “Remember what happened to the CPI after the emergency”, they ask. The reference is to the fact that CPI moved close to the Congress and paid for that closeness. These watchers opine that similar fate awaits the Marxists now unless they move away from the Congress in time. Put it differently, the call is to CPI (M) to ‘do a survival rejig in time’.

Over the years, Indian politics have become a two-legged race between the Congress and the BJP. The space for bit players and also rans has shrunk. The likes of Chandrababu Naidu, according to a political analyst, tried to be clever by half. And it proved to be their undoing once their feet of clay were exposed at the end of NDA experiment. Naidu has to wait for two years before the Marxists agreed to be friendly with him that too at the local level.

The politics of one-upmanship between the CPI (M) and CPI may also come in the way of Third Front turning into a reality. CPI is anti Mulayam in UP. It is anti- RJD in Bihar. This will pose a problem to the authors of the Front. So will the ambitions of Ram Vilas Paswan and Nitish Kumar, who want to flaunt their secular credentials.

Paswan is a Bihar centric phenomenon. His fight is with Nitish Kumar. He also wants to occupy the space presently claimed by BSP. His forays into UP are not to the liking of Mulayam.

Nitish Kumar along with Sharad Yadav is trying to steer the Janata Dal (United) away from the BJP. He has not succeeded thus far in his objective. Even otherwise his party is tottering with George Fernandes planning to revive the long forgotten Samata party as a platform unto himself.

The point is the road for the Third Front is not a thorough fare as of now. But politicians are known to make their wishes run like horses. There in lies the rub, probably.