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Mainstream, Vol XLVIII, No 19, May 1, 2010

UPA’s Success amid Massive Protests

Editorial

Saturday 1 May 2010, by SC

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The snowballing of the IPL controversy; the charge of the tapping of phones of several politicians being stoutly denied by the Union Home Minister; the BJP/Left’s allegation of the PM’s breach of Parliament’s privilege for having announced outside (when the House was in session) dismissal of the demand for a JPC probe on the IPL scandal and phone-tapping; the Opposition’s disruption of both Houses of Parliament on a PR lobbyist’s phone being placed under observation as part of a CBI investigation into accusations about the person’s role in trying to influence the 2G spectrum auction in 2008 and for being in contact with Union Communications Minister A. Raja—all these have been the highlights of the last few days.

However, all these cannot match three latest developments: a massive protest rally in the Capital and march to Parliament by the BJP to articulate the people’s indignation over the incessant rise in prices; the Bharat Bandh by 13 parties of the Left and non-BJP Opposition forces on April 27 on the same issue of price rise; and the UPA Government’s success on the same day in weathering the trial of strength on the cut motion in the Lok Sabha with a 289-201 scoreline helped by support from Mayawati’s BSP and walkout by the SP and RJD. A sidelight of the government’s victory over the Opposition on the cut motion was Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren, even now a Lok Sabha member, voting for the UPA despite being propped up by the NDA, an incident that incensed the BJP such as to withdraw support from the Jharkhand Government in Ranchi thus turning it into a minority.

Having crossed the hurdle of the cut motion, the UPA Government can now breathe easy. For a question-mark was hanging over its stability. There was growing apprehension in this respect because some of the parties backing the UPA had suddenly joined the Opposition ranks over the issue. But now the clouds of uncertainty have been removed. However, this does not mean any reduction in the opposition to the government’s policies. This is vindicated by the pronouncements of Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad just before the vote on the cut motion. Whatever the personal reasons of the three for not translating that opposition to the government’s policies into opposition of the government on the floor of the Lok Sabha (publicly they took the stand that they cannot vote with the ‘communal forces’ on the issue and by that they did expose their opportunist politics), there is no denying that these leaders and the parties they head are not at all in tune with the government’s policies leading to the price escalation.

And the public anger against those policies was witnessed on the streets of the Capital and major metropolises during both the BJP’s march to Parliament and the Bharat Bandh of the non-BJP secular forces on April 27. The government can well ignore this warning signal from the side of the people but then it would do so at its own peril.

Meanwhile Thimphu hosted the 16th SAARC Summit marking 25 years since the Association’s birth in Dhaka in December 1985. The Bhutanese PM spoke at length on the problems facing SAARC at this juncture and outlined steps to overcome them. However, the focus was on the sidelines—the bilateral meeting between the PMs of India and Pakistan on April 29, doubtless a positive development; but it appears the issue of terrorism and the Islamabad Government’s reluctance to take action against terrorists operating from Pakistani soil (specially those involved in the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai) have once again hampered the Indo-Pak dialogue process. The complexities in this regard continue to adversely affect South Asian cooperation as has been the past experience.

Hopefully things would change for the better in the near future in the interest of bilateral and regional peace and amity.

April 29 S.C.

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