COMMUNICATION
The ones who are opposed to the National Democratic Alliance Government at the Centre, headed by the Pradhan Parcharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, wrongly and euphe-mistically called the BJP Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, find it absolutely unjustified and unprincipled the positions of the Third Front and Left Front in the ensuing Bihar Vidhan Sabha elections. Incidentally, the BJP is the political child of the mother RSS.
The Third Front, christened as the Secular Socialist Morcha, has been constituted of the Samajwadi Party, Jan Adhikar Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Samras Samaj Party, Samajwadi Janata Party-D and National People's Party. The Left Front consists of the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist- Leninist) Liberation, Communist Party of India- Marxist, All India Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist).
Both the Fronts propose to put up their candidates in all the 243 seats in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha.
The leaders of all these twelve parties are perceived to be anti-RSS with varying degrees of commitment. So is the case with the leaders of the Grand Alliance which includes the Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal and Indian National Congress.
Obviously the anti-RSS votes would be divided amongst these three formations which would result in direct benefit to the National Democratic Alliance.
At present Bihar is being run by a govern-ment headed by Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) which is supported by the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Indian National Congress. The National Democratic Alliance in Bihar constitutes the Bharatiya Janata Party, Lok Janshakti Party, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular).
In the outgoing Bihar Vidhan Sabha, it is the Janata Dal (United), Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal which have numerically visible strength. All other parties are either non-existent or have negligible presence. Bihar politics also has been revolving around the leaders of these parties with minor variations here and there for the last several decades. The Indian National Congress and Lok Janshakti Party leaders did matter in some respects. The Indian National Congress started yielding space to these parties since 1967 when Samyukt Vidhayak Dal governments were formed in the most of the then States of the Union of India.
In the current political scenario, no anti-RSS political party or leader can deny the need of joining hands together to repulse the advance of the RSS. Hence also its defeat in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha elections should be the aim of all secular parties. Nobody expects the leaders of the Third Front and Left Front to be so politically naïve either.
Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Pawar, the two stalwarts of the Third Front, and Sudhakar Reddy, Dipankar Bhattacharya and Sitaram Yechury of the Left Front are well aware of the threats to Indian democracy howsoever flawed it is. Nobody can expect them also to conduct themselves in a casual manner in such a grave situation when the stakes for the country are so high. The results of the Bihar elections are bound to have pan-India repercussions for the future course of history.
It has also to be stated quite bluntly that the past record of these leaders and their parties fighting against the BJP can in no way be regarded as unimpeachable. One is inclined to assert that their politics so far has helped the BJP to come to the cenre-stage of Indian politics, indirectly or directly and inadvertently or deliberately.
Is it not a fact that during the last UPA Government all these parties fully supported the BJP in obstructing the functioning of Parliament? Some of their leaders were openly seen embracing the BJP leaders during a protest rally at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. So, their present stand with regard to the Bihar Vidhan Sabha elections is although baffling yet not at all fully inscrutable.
Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Pawar are on the permanent waiting list of the prime ministerial candidates. How can they tolerate any other rival for the august office in case Nitish Kumar emeges as the winner in these elections? So, it is their personal ambition which has blinded them to the gravity of the situation that would emerge following the Bihar poll results.
So far as the Left Front is concerned, it is the anti-Congressism of the parties constituting the Front that would not allow them to come out of the blind alley in which they have been trapped.
In these elections the leaders and parties of the Third Front and Left Front have been fully exposed.
Hargopal Singh
(Member, Political Committee, United Communist Party of India) Meerut