EDIT: Unique Political Angst

Don’t revive old prejudices against coalitions

There may be more victims of the current uncertainty engulfing the UPA than we can track. Spare a thought, for instance, for the hit taken by the idea of coalition government. Admittedly, the Left is not a part of the ruling alliance at the Centre; it only supports it from the outside. Even so, the tensions over the nuclear deal between the Congress and Left parties that have stilled all governance and threaten to do worse, are bound to revive the unfortunate folklore about coalition governments that had been showing welcome signs of flagging. Coalitions, it was once believed, mean instability. They meant nervous governments too busy looking over their shoulder to rule.

If the drama initiated by the Left goes on as it has begun, that once-fashionable narrative could well stage a comeback.It would be such a pity. Ever since the Congress system sagged at the Centre in 1989 — in many states such a moment had come earlier — coalition governments have proved that they are not inevitably weak formations marking time before a premature end. It was a coalition government that ushered in the era of economic liberalisation. For all the squabbling egos on board, even the United Front government was responsible for valuable political-institutional innovations towards the end of giving regional players a voice at the Centre. And then the NDA carried forward the federal power-sharing experiment, imparting it with a certain maturity, while becoming the first non-Congress government to last a full term at the Centre.

Many of these coalitions have been turbulent, several have collapsed. But on balance, there is a maturing of the political interactions and a routinisation of the new rules of the game. On the whole, the nostalgia for single party rule is all but buried. The new grammar of politics that has replaced it has been acknowledged and accepted, if not celebrated — with all its puzzles and paradoxes. It would be tragic if Congress-Left antagonisms were to become the cause for a return to an earlier prejudice and blind spot.