Setting the chessboard

It is also the formal inauguration of another round of political churning. Over the past few days, with Sonia’s Congress determinedly getting down to the task at hand, unsubtly propositioning allies, the political ground rules are being recast all over again. It surely says something about the nature of the alliance game today that many of the key smaller players, who are currently enjoying their fifteen minutes in the spotlight, oscillate hectically, almost equally, between the two main rivals, the Congress and the BJP. Be it Kalyan Singh in Uttar Pradesh now, or Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra earlier, both, we know, flirted with both options. In these calculations, the Congress, it seems, is just the BJP by another seat-vote tally. Ideology was given an unlamented burial long ago and a sense of history is only a drag on the hopelessly unsavvy. And so the Congress can ally with the DMK, in whose name it once pulled down a government and whom it blamed for Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. But there are no penalties attached, because unlikely alliances are just so routine.

Now that the Congress has made up its mind, will we see the nineties’ political ferment finally settle into a neat two front formation? Or will that stubbornly inconvenient Third Front keep the field untidy still? There are other questions as well that will be answered by the campaign to come. Will governance, the leitmotif, by common consent, of Assembly Elections 2003, be central to General Elections 2004 as well? Will the Dynasty be able to outlive another defeat of the Congress, should the front it leads not make the magic figure? Will the BJP weave the Islamabad declaration into its campaign? In that last question lies much hope. It will be a wholly refreshing turn in Indian politics if peace, not war or communal conflict, can become a platform for seeking votes.