When a Prime Minister speaks, the nation listens. On February 7, Tuesday, when PM Narendra Damodardass Modi addressed Parliament, there was added significance as there’s a deficit of his presence and speeches in the august Houses.
All the same, some of the issues he touched upon need special mention either for the way he has apparently gone overboard or touched upon important points such as the proposed plan to have simultaneous elections to Parliament and state Assemblies.
To start with, his query on AAP member Bhagwant Mann whether he was “drunk today” was in poor taste. The same was the impression that went round on his jovial reference to the earthquake that shook several parts of North India a day prior. The quake did not lead to any major damage, but all the same, quakes and cyclones are natural calamities.
To invoke such situations to poke fun — obviously at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had stated in jest recently that if he spoke in Parliament against a “scam” related to the PM, there would be an earthquake — too was not in good taste.
This apart, the Prime Minister made a fresh pitch for holding of simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies. He has been pushing this case for some time now, and the President’s address to both Houses of Parliament this time had a reference to this desire of the PM. A time when the elections to both parliament and assemblies were held simultaneously was in late 1951 and early 1952.
That was five years after Independence and when the political climate in the country was yet to warm up. Later years saw ministries and governments failing to last full term, mostly due to parties unable to win majority seats in elections or defections, necessitating President’s rule followed by fresh elections.
President’s rule is a stop-gap arrangement in a democracy, whereas the people’s will is reflected in the functioning of only the elected governments. The Eleventh Lok Sabha, for instance, had a roller-coaster ride, with three Prime Ministers — AB Vajpayee, HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujaral — running governments for short periods in a season of political confusion and uncertainty. The 12th Lok Sabha, which saw Vajpayee as PM again, had lost majority support when AIADMK and BSP withdrew their backing, followed by dramatic scenes in which former Orissa CM Giridhar Gamang’s one (freak) vote pulled the government down.
The 13th Lok Sabha, too, saw Vajpayee as PM. He dissolved the House reportedly on advice from LK Advani a year before the end of the term. Hope for the BJP then was that, riding on an India Shining slogan, it could have a cakewalk back to power. It happened the other way and the polls saw victory for the Congress. At that time, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, too, had advanced assembly polls in Orissa by a year then, while the alliance between the BJD and BJP existed.
All this is to say that durability of a ministry, government or legislative house is as unpredictable as the fast-changing political climates. This is a beauty as well as a problem one has to live with in a democracy, even after the coming into being of the anti-defection law. The ‘Aaya Ram Gaya Ram’ age in Haryana under Bhajan Lal is also a case in point.
The way the Modi government conducted itself in the past nearly three years shows it too is not above board in the matter of “encouraging” defections as was the case with Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, etc, which saw change of governments.
Not just defections, even the death of a member or two from the ruling party’s side, failure of the main party to have majority support on its own, leading to crafting of an alliance and followed by break-up, splits in parties and many other similar events are all situations that will create Constitutional crises affecting the stability of governments and situations for mid-term elections to be forced on Assemblies and the Lok Sabha.
While Modi’s argument in support of having simultaneous polls is understandable, it is riddled with problems as well. Being CM, as he had been, is one thing; and being PM is a different ball game. A CM can carry on with his rule even if his party loses some local body polls.
But, if a Prime Minister’s party loses a few states in assembly polls, his survival is at stake. That would be indication that the public mood has changed against the government’s three ‘P’s — policies, programmes and politics.
One wonders if our present prime minister is capable of assuring the nation that never in the future will there be instability or defection in any Assembly or Lok Sabha ever. The state polls are a barometer of a PM’s popularity as well if his party is in the contest, as is going to be the case for the five assembly polls in February-March.
The inability of Damodardass Modi to understand the beauty and flexibility of Indian democracy is a matter of great sorrow. This kind of a democracy alone stopped Indira Gandhi who was on track to becoming a dictator.
Similarly, Modi and his supporters must understand that they, too, are not permanent. Democracy is beautiful because change is permanent. True democrats understand this well. The verdict coming on D-Day, March 11, when results of the five assemblies (Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur) are up for polls will be out, should be accepted by Modi Bhakts as an assessment of his acceptability or non-acceptability to the general public in this country.
