Smile please

Among the more significant news photographs of recent times is the one showing Sushma Swaraj and Brinda Karat, both smiling and with good reason — they and other women MPs across party lines fought and won a partial victory for the women’s bill. Such photographs should not be as rare as they are — political leaders of parties with deep ideological divisions should be able to work together on specific issues. Political differences, however sharp, should not lead to personal antipathy because in a mature democracy there are always some national issues that require the political class to forge intelligent solutions. So it is one of the saddest developments in recent politics that parties have found it increasingly difficult to have quiet dialogue. More sad because it is not as if such dialogue is beyond the capacity of the leaders.

Economic reforms, let’s remember, is a political item only because of cross-party understanding on broad parameters. This understanding is not always advertised but it’s there. A similar quiet exchange could have happened on the nuclear deal. Indeed don’t underestimate the capacity of Indian politics to surprise; time permitting, some rough formula may yet emerge. But the fact is that nuclear politics could have been handled better, even given the stated positions of all the major political players. The reason it wasn’t is that the deal became a public issue when relations between political parties had already soured. Perhaps the Congress could have been a cleverer communicator. On the other hand, given the maximalist positions of the BJP and the Left, it is hard to see what else could have happened. But had relations been better it would be easy to see how much could have been achieved — just look at Pranab Mukherjee’s energetic negotiations. Mukherjee and a Mukherjee equivalent from the BJP would have likely sorted out many issues.

Better relations between the Congress and the BJP are really the most important part of a solution. There seems to be a lack of minimum chemistry between the top leaderships of both parties, and senior-middle leaders are not empowered to move things forward substantively. This has to change because Indian electoral results are unlikely to give either party a decisive mandate. Therefore, to the extent the Big Two can be counted on to mostly take the right decisions on big policy issues, the Congress and the BJP need each other sometimes to move things forward. This government may end without the Centre clearing pension reform. Both the Congress and the BJP know saying yes to pension reform is a no-brainer. Neither had the imagination to put their combined weight behind the idea.