Mamata Banerjee has once again become the centre of attention after declaring to withdraw support from the Congress led UPA-II government.
While the repercussions of this decision may have a larger impact on the governance of the nation, than her other decisions lately, this move was in sync with her other decisions to exercise power.
With the nineteen members of parliament of the Trinamool Congress officially withdrawing from the ruling coalition on Friday, this may seriously affect the support of the leading party in the parliament. TMC claims that the government’s decision to relax foreign direct investment regulations, the recent hike in LPG and diesel prices and regulation of the number of LPG cylinders per household is unjust, and was not taken with its consent.
The withdrawal of support of the second largest party in the Congress led-coalition will have the government dependent on support of parties such as the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, who will be as easy to appease as Mamata didi.
This is the perfect cocktail drama in the era of coalition politics. There is no leading party that can garner enough support to sustain itself for a term in the Lok Sabha. With a range of political ideologies in the ruling government, as well as a variety of factions within the parties themselves, it is difficult to take decisions without appeasing the interests of the constituent parties, and by extension, the different strata of people.
Ironically, it was the same person, who only a few weeks ago, had thrown two farmers to jail, calling them Maoists and a threat to the state, only for raising their questions on the status of work that the West Bengal government has been doing for the poor farmers.
Didi’s raj in Bengal is no better than the previous regime, under the Communist Party of India, with all the drama that keeps the media entertained all along and the people repeatedly questioning the decisions she makes.
She has kept the government on its toes, since becoming the railway minster herself. The government has an in-house opposition in the form of Mamata Banerjee. Although debate and discussion is good, allies should be able to reach on a conclusion, and present a united front to the opposition. She has meddled and hindered in all stances of the government, from the decision to put Pranab Mukherjee as the presidential candidate earlier this year to even impeding the prime minister’s bilateral talks with the Bangladeshi delegation led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over the Teesta water issues.
Politics is all about making complete use of the power you have, while ensuring that you are indispensible and central to all the work and decisions made.
The unfortunate reality is that there are several gimmicks to play with the minds of the people. It is the tragic manifestation of a system that depends on leaders always on the lookout for any twisted way to garner votes. It is not possible for a single person (and by extension, political party) to truly appease all sections of the society, and the country. What were the ideals of democracy have now become just ways to gain more points in the field of politics, rather than actually scoring goals.
Rather than actually working for even one particular section of the society, our politicians are just oscillating between the peasantry and the conservatives. In most cases, the difference in the length of the lists of the use and misuse of power by governments is shamefully long.
The political situation in the country today appears so dark and hopeless, that as the aam janta(common man) today, we are so ambiguous about which party to believe in, who will be the least corrupt of them all, and who will be strong enough to retain power for a seemingly impossible period of five years.
In the next general election, people will no longer vote for the most eligible party; rather, it will be a process of elimination, picking the least worst of the lot. What is undisputable is that we cannot expect a strong and firm union government in the coming years. If a party is internally well organised, like the Congress, then, with all its recent pandora’s box of scams, it is unlikely to get much support of the people.
On the other hand, though parties like BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) have charismatic and popular leaders like Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar, their internal cohesiveness is often disputed. And god knows the fate of the popularity of Anna Hazare backed party, as it was a movement that fizzled as quickly as it rose to fame.
The political parties need to appreciate the beauty of democracy and remind themselves that it is the empowerment of the people and not the rulers. They are answerable and obligated to the people for their decisions, which must have depth of promise and fulfilment in them. Just adopting certain measures driven by vote-banks to cater to temporary interests is unjust to the people.
Abhiruchi Chatterjee
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