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How the UPA government is faring in India?

ZAGLUL AHMED CHOWDHURY
***New UPA government's policy towards the neighbours is being viewed as positive, at least compared to that of the NDA government. Soon after coming to power, the external affairs minister paid a visit to small neighbour Nepal and received counterparts from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. With Pakistan bilateral talks at different levels are taking place. It has also supported next SAARC summit in Dhaka and hopefully this time the event will not be delayed. On some Dhaka-New Delhi vexed issues, the attitude of the new government is more positive.***
IT is not too long that a new Indian government has taken charge of the country, following the last general elections. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA),a rainbow coalition led by the Indian National Congress, has replaced another alliance government National Democratic Alli-ance(NDA) headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). India, the largest democracy, is experiencing coalition culture in recent times when it comes to governing the country and it is now almost inconceivable that any single party can have its government in the South Bloc. Needless to say that this pattern of government is getting strengthened in India and the latest UPA government is no exception. Gone are the days when a single political organisation could muster enough support in the lower house of parliament and stake claim to form a government of its own.
Even the major parties seldom these days remotely dream of having an absolute majority in the 545-member lower house of parliament (Loksabha), elected by direct popular votes. They either seek to reach electoral understanding before the voting or look for like minded parties in the event of necessity to form government when a requisite majority is lacking. The previous NDA government and its
successor UPA alliance -- all fit in the same milieu of coalition culture. The coming together of different political forces for the purpose of ruling is not unusual in parliamentary democracy, which may happen under compulsion or sheer political understanding. But it has also its own pitfalls particularly when none of the constituents enjoy outright majority by its own strength. This is mostly the case with Indian political parties these days. In Bangla-
desh, as the situation exists now, there is an alliance government but the main partner has overwhelming majority and hence the strains generally caused by the smaller partners are rarely witnessed.
In India, the Congress which spearheaded country's independence movement, ruled the nation without any interruption for a pretty long spell and one person Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister, remained at the helm till his death in 1964. Lal Bahadur Sastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao -- all Congress prime ministers headed their party government without any coalition. The end of single party ascendancy in the pattern of rule ended when Congress under Indira Gandhi lost in 1977 to Janata Party, which was born out of combination of several political organisations. Morarji Desai, Chadrasekhar, V.P. Singh, H.D. Deve Gowda, I.K. Gujral and lately A.B. Vajpayee -- all these
non-Congress prime ministers were product of coalition culture. The present head of government Dr Monmohan Singh is no exception as he leads a multi-party government although his Congress is the dominant force in the alliance. The coalition authorities generally come into being depending on political exigencies and at times relying on the support from outside. The UPA government is constituted by different political
groups but is critically linked to the support of the leftists from outside without direct involvement.
The UPA government has several heavyweight politicians coming from various parties and their ambitions may create problem for the ruling alliance. The presence of Sharad Pawar of Maharastra and Laloo Prasad Yadav from Bihar in the ministry and also K. Karunanidhi from Tamil Nadu in the alliance is potentially troublesome since these senior politicians can come to a difference over their influence and strategy. But so far such leaders have shown positive attitude and seem to be content with their positions and roles.
It is a good sign for the UPA government and no doubt this has been made possible largely because of the remarkable gesture demonstrated by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who in a near unprecedented manner refused to become prime minister when the position was on the platter. She
remains the most powerful figure in the ruling alliance being the chairperson of the UPA and this has certainly alerted the other ambitious leaders in the coalition against thinking too much for themselves. For, Sonia's decision has earned for herself enormous respect ,which in effect would put other leaders under poor light if they at all show their ambitions. Sonia Gandhi's this admirable position helped cohesion in the UPA on one hand and keep the ambi-
tious leaders under control on the other. Besides, streamlining of the political authority of the UPA and a person of clean image and integrity as prime minister are also plus points for the ruling alliance.
The NDA did not face any problem in second term of rule as there was hardly any infighting which was experienced in the first tenure and revolt by Tamil Nadu's Jayaram Jayalalitha cut short the NDA term halfway through. The presence of Vajpayee, who has no rivals as such in the alliance because of his stature, helped it maintain unity among more than twenty parties in the coalition. But it was the complacency that cost it heavily since advancement of the polls by several months was a misjudged decision which boomeranged on the NDA. A major reason for its largely unexpected electoral debacle was its apathy to the rural areas. The new UPA government appears to be quite conscious of that
attaching importance to the previously neglected sides. It has taken several welfare-oriented programmes.
Another problem that the NDA may have faced is likely differences with the leftists, which are supporting the UPA despite many differences mainly to prevent NDA and more particularly the BJP, widely seen as communal, from coming to power. The UPA constituents and leftists are bound by common policy of secularism and castigate the
communal forces. But the Congress and the leftists often cross swords mainly in West Bengal and Kerala, where they are principal political rivals. Even these days they attack each other on state politics. However, bigger interest is expected to keep their unity at the centre unhindred and Congress supremo Sonia and two elderly communist leaders Jyoti Basu and Harikishan Singh Surjeet are known to be keen to maintain this albeit occasional hiccup. However, only future can tell how long this unity can survive.
The opposition has kept up its pot boiling against the new government and is firing the salvo against the "tainted" ministers. This is embarrassing to the UPA government and the parliamentary proceedings are often obstructed on the issue. The coal minister Shivu Sharan was forced to quit as a sequel of an earlier criminal case and some other ministers too are opposition's target including influen-
tial Laloo Prasad Yadav. The prime minister has done well by earlier advising Shivu Sharan, leader of the UPA constituent JMM, to quit. But the opposition is not relenting. This issue may raise more dust in the Indian political scene.
On foreign policy matters, a reported comment by external affairs minister K. Natwar Singh on New Delhi's position in sending troops to Iraq had come under immediate criticisms from both opposition and some UPA partners. The minister retracted from the comments attributed to him evidently under pressure from the leftists and his own leader Sonia Gandhi. This has helped the government to come out from a potentially hot controversy.
New UPA government's policy towards the neighbours is being viewed as positive, at least compared to that of the NDA government. Soon after coming to power, the external affairs minister paid a visit to small neighbour Nepal and received counterparts from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. With Pakistan bilateral talks at different levels are taking place. It has also supported next SAARC summit in Dhaka and hopefully this time the event will not be delayed. On some Dhaka-New Delhi vexed issues, the attitude of the new government is more positive. Indications are there that UPA government will pursue good neighbourliness and the influence of the leftists, who favour a peaceful region, is also a factor that casts positively on this issue. On the whole, the UPA government in India is faring reasonably well even though it is not free from trouble at home. But there is no immediate or major threat to its existence.
Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury is a senior journalist.