T.I.N.A.! Or is there?

A holiday through last week has been a welcome break...albeit from doing nothing. And where I would normally have struggled to find something meaningful to ponder, the last 10 days have been a veritable trove.

Soon's I got back to the chores of calling up Poor Foreigner Investors (to tell them, yet again, that nothing had changed since I last called them!), I have been beseiged with questions about the Third Front that's apparently woken up after a 10 yr hiatus. Somehow, that particular bunch of politicians has given me nothing but loads of cringe-worthy memories. Of Prime Minister Gowda sleeping through Parliament proceedings, countless seminars & conferences, public rallies, and heck, I think even one international summit (if I'm not mistaken!). And of the venerable Sharad Yadav sneering at Prime Minister Gujral, and taunting him & calling him names in public, that I would have used for street fights when I must have been 12 yrs old!

So, the second most popular question that PFIs (Poor Foreigner Investors) have been bombarding me with, all morning, is precisely this: what is the probability of this bunch coming to power come Jun 2 & what would that mean for their PPIs (Poor Portfolio Investments)? (The most popular one was whether we would end up being ruled by a narrow coalition or a broad coalition, and what, incidentally, did the two bloody terms really mean!!) I am no psephologist, but does one really believe this rag-tag bunch, united by nothing save an unwillingness to support the 500-pound gorillas (Congress & BJP), could come to rule the country.
All past four instances of Third Front governments have been in existence only with support from either of the gorillas (VP Singh & Chandrasekhar propped up by the BJP, and Gowda & Gujral by the Congress) and brought down precisely at the behest of the self-same gorillas. And this bunch is about to rule us, all by themselves?? You got to be kidding me!

To be fair, I did think of the possibility of (heavens!) Mayawati becoming the next Prime Minister, and I confess to a real shudder that passed through me (much to the bemusement of my colleagues today!). Actually, Jayalalitha & Deve Gowda as other potential candidates for the job, cause me the same amount of consternation. Mayawati is arguably the richest politician in the country, with billions of rupees worth of declared assets, and more obviously, not all of it could have been earned through the scrupulous means of public service that she claims to be engaged in. On becoming PM, will she now propose to build shopping complexes around the Qutub Minar, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Gateway of India & the Victoria Memorial now (reminiscent of the Taj project!)? What kind of foreign policy initiatives can one expect from the likes of Jayalalitha, who was unable to make any impact in relation to the LTTE even when she was in power in Tamil Nadu? Precisely at a time when the country will need careful economic stewardship to avoid a further ballooning of a dangerous fiscal deficit (projected to be 12% of GDP in FY10), how much faith can one repose in a motley bunch who have not been guilty of good governance at the state level, much less the centre?

Can someone tell me, what really, is the ideology of the BSP? (Did anyone notice them claiming that "true to their ideology", they would NOT be releasing an election manifesto!!!) Or that of the JD (S), for that matter? Has Chandrababu Naidu finally figured out what he stands for - utopian CII-promoted dreams or a farmers' revolution? And most importantly, what is the common ground that these parochial satraps will come to stand on? The fact of these regional parties coming to be of such importance on the national political stage is testament to how venal governance has come to be. This utter lack of scruples & naked display of ambition for power is ultimately to be blamed on no one but our own selves. I was highly amused to read today that another Ram Sene equivalent blocked the erection of a Charlie Chaplin statue on the sets of a Kannada film, on the grounds that Chaplin was Christian! Ironical!! (Ask Senator McCarthy who indicted Chaplin of being a Communist!) The moot point of the incident was the fact that blind tolerance on our own part, for such pathetic posturing under the garb of cultural policing, is leading to our own ruin at a larger scale.

In all fairness, though, even from a numerical stand-point, I find it difficult to believe that said Third Front will find it possible to reach the magical 272 figure. Even if Mulayam Singh Yadav were to, suicidally, decide not to align with the Congress in the UP, the upper limit to the number of seats that Maya might win is just 50 (compared to the 16 she holds now). This gain just about neutralizes the loss of around 30-35 seats that the Left front faces in West Bengal & Kerala. Add to this, the maximum upside possible for the likes of Deve Gowda, Jayalalitha, Naveen Patnaik and (shudder again!) Deve Gowda, the most optimistic prediction could not possibly be much in excess of 200 seats.

Ergo, we can all rest at relative peace. However much you might hate the dynastic, arrogant & inertia-bound politics of the Congress or the communal fervor that a resurgent BJP would stoke through its allies, even if not by itself, you have to accept it - really, T.I.N.A. - There Is No Alternative! (And to think, the last serious time this slogan was used in politics, an iron-fisted lady led her country out of a deep economic morass!!)

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The next time you decide to take a break in Goa, and want to be away from the crowds, try checking out Colva beach. I stayed at a little gem called William's Beach Resort. Nothing fancy, but fantastic food & an absolute break from any crowds...and of course, the sea right at your doorstep!