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Thank you Mulayam

The Congress is mad with Mulayam Singh. So is the Left. So, for that matter, is Laloo Prasad Yadav. Though Laloo has cleverly couched his anger in platitudes. For Mulayam Singh has done what no one else dared to. He stuck to his principles and said boo to Sonia.

Everyone else capitulated. Openly and shamelessly. Starting of course with the most shameless of them all: Harkishen Singh Surjeet of the CPI-M, who is all set to pick up the trophy for being the most devious of all political operators in the capital. He has, you can say almost single-handedly, ruined Jyoti Basu's chances of becoming the prime minister. Not once but twice. Out of political necessity or peer envy? The politbureau being so tight-arsed, no one will ever know.

Some say that Mulayam Singh was not exactly serious when he proposed Basu's name for the top job. Mulayam's first choice was always Mulayam and it was only when he realised that he stood no chance in the bedlam that he proposed Basu's name to checkmate Sonia. Maybe. But the fact remains that the whole of the Indian political elite, barring the BJP and its allies, were doing Ganesh parikrama to the Congress president in the hope of getting into power through the back door. Mulayam Singh put paid to that.

He had always stood against the BJP and, therefore, it was no surprise that he joined hands with everyone else to bring the government down. That was the most obvious thing to do. But then, unlike the rest of the motley crew, he refused to gang up with the Congress to put Sonia in Race Course Road. That was Mulayam Singh's way of showing that he knew where his long-term political interests lay.

That he was not ready to compromise with forces he has always stood against, be it the BJP or the Congress. Rather, he would face the electorate. Even if it meant being isolated in UP, where he would now not only face the forces of Hindutva ranged against him but also the so-called secular parties led by the Congress, which is desperate to grab Mulayam's Muslim vote-bank. Even Laloo may disengage himself from the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha, splitting the backwards and leaving Mulayam in splendiferous isolation.

In a political scenario where everyone has mastered the art of deception and compromise, where even the President takes baffling decisions that not too many people can explain, it was good to see one man stand up for his principles and risk the flak. Vajpayee must have been pleasantly surprised because, under the flag of fighting communalism, everyone had got together to oust the BJP and replace them with a Sonia-led government. In fact, so confident was Sonia about getting away with her devious game plan that even before the President had called her for consultation, she had flown in her relatives for the swearing-in.

She lied to Jayalalitha, compromised Laloo, conned Surjeet, wooed the desperately eager Deve Gowda and misled Mayavati into believing that they (the Congress, BSP and Samajwadi Party together) could form the perfect menage a trois in UP. They all thought they would get an important piece of the action once Vajpayee fell. Little did they know that Sonia had no intention whatsoever of sharing power with anyone at any stage. She wanted to hold absolute sway.

When that failed, she tried to manoeuvre events in such a way that she could be in charge of a caretaker government to conduct the elections. The reasons are obvious. She believed that with the Congress in power, she could manipulate the outcome of such an election and ensure that however India may vote she becomes its next prime minister.

What is sad is not the fact that she thought India was stupid, that its political system could be so easily suborned, that its leaders could be bought off for a few pieces of silver, that she could then destroy all the Bofors files and other evidence of malfeasance that continue to haunt her party and her family, but that she was so convinced of her invincibility and her historic role that she took every unprincipled twist and turn in the belief that no one would notice.

She had no qualms about lying to the President about the number of MPs supporting her. She misled her allies into believing that they would be part of the new government to replace the BJP and then, to their total dismay, announced to the media that she would lead only a minority, blue-blooded Congress government. The rest would have to support her from outside.

Throughout all this, she persisted in misleading the media into reporting things incorrectly. The fact that she deliberately prevaricates, deliberately misleads, deliberately confuses everyone is by now well known, well documented. Everyone knows she will now leave the shit outside Arjun Singh's door and make him the fall guy.

If he protests, she will find some other murga. If all fails, she will rewrite the entire history of the past fortnight and create a new pantheon of villains to explain why the Congress was denied its rightful role in contemporary Indian history and why all these communal niggers ganged up to prevent her from playing Annie Besant and saving India from the clutches of the bloody Hindus.

From all indications, the polls are imminent whatever smart political pirouettes the Congress and Sonia may do in the next few days. This is one more chance for the electorate to make up its mind who it really wants in power. For almost a decade, the nation has been vague and indecisive. So vague, so indecisive that the Congress under Narasimha Rao had to bribe three JMM MPs to stay in office.

The BJP, on the other hand, has not exactly shone in government but it has done a reasonable job given its slight mandate. It could have done infinitely better but it lacked experience and spurned talent, choosing to depend almost entirely on its own mediocre lot and those whom the allies dumped on them. Jayalalitha's ministers were the worst. They did no work and earned absolute notoriety for the way they dealt with people who came to ask for help. Vajpayee also split the cabinet into two. His pets, on one side. And the rest, who were expected to fend for themselves.

Yet, despite all this, Vajpayee did not fare badly and, by the time he was dislodged, he had come to represent the face of stability and economic wellbeing. Every attack on him created tremors in the marketplace and every time he swung back, the Sensex rose. Unfortunately, Vajpayee never had the numbers to see his most ambitious plans through but that did not stop him from trying to push ahead with economic reforms, risk overtures to Pakistan, and finally put Jayalalitha in her place.

Yes, it was a talentless, clueless government. Yet it did its best for India during its 13 months in power. It sought consensus wherever it could and sometimes bent backwards to accommodate its allies. Like the other coalitions before it, Vajpayee's government sought to strengthen the democratic process in India through consensus and national debate and, much as we may ridicule these short-lived regimes, we must recognise their valuable contribution in opening up the political process which the Congress had hijacked for 45 years. Years of greed, arrogance, selfishness. Years of seeking only pelf. And, if the past fortnight is any indication, there is no sign that Sonia Gandhi is going to be any different.

That is why, whatever others may say, I thank Mulayam Singh for sparing us a Sonia regime at the Centre.

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