Naidu’s brief interlude with the geometric sounding equidistance all but ended yesterday as his party MPs voted decisively in favour of the Vajpayee government and thereby giving it the credibility of a true majority, and not merely a working majority dependent on abstentions alone. Not that Naidu’s continued conditional support could be taken for granted forever, but certainly one can rest assured that, given his deep-seated animosity toward the Congress, he can be trusted to maintain a safe distance and not the now familiar equidistance from his arch enemy. We are sure Naidu’s determination would last for a few more Ugadis to come.
The lonesome bachelor has at last found his mate and is sure to remain wedded to office, if not for the entire five years, at least for a good part of it. Vajpayee has been courting power for quite some time now, with dignity and patience and it is indeed a matter of gratification that his marriage with the PM’s post has been consummated: Never has a tying of the knot been so much steeped in intrigue and opposition, what with his opponents leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the suitor and the loved one do not get together and if they do manage to meet, do not remain together beyond the thirteenth day. Vajpayee’s present reign is certain to break that jinx and on April one, when he crosses the ominous day, he would have fooled his doomsday pundits. Yet he should be wary that the day repeats itself every year and the number thirteen may stalk him through-out as it did this March when he had some anxious moments owing to the delay of support letters.
The precarious state of affairs of the country warrants such exercises of placing faith in superstition and omens. It is quite sometime since the people and polity have bid goodbye to anything rational, as the recent happenings in the country have belied logic and sense and have been the most testing assault on one’s sanity. One remembers vaguely about some quote by some eminence that it was indeed a miracle how India survived. There were also references in the past about India being a functioning anarchy but never have these descriptions fitted us as they do now. After virtually two years of political and economic stalemate, the country is badly in need of a spell of governance, good or bad.
The plethora of problems and issues that confronts the country could be tackled only by those with a clear sense of purpose, unflinching determination and a vision that transcends parochial interests. That such men are far and few and even they are apt to get their wings clipped, wittingly or unwittingly, by politics of expediency in their struggle for survival is the unfortunate reality of the present. No doubt, the PM is left breathless and exhausted in just a few days of attending and surviving in a Parliament that is divided down the middle and has in its precincts members who believe that louder their voice is sounder the democracy will be. Getting started itself has been so difficult, and one could imagine what lies in store for the country, given the unruly House and an ineffective Speaker who himself had to plead to make himself heard above the din. The business of governance will have to survive all the onslaught within the round walls of the Parliament House and it is anybody’s guess as to what would be salvaged for the benefit of the people. Each day is likely to become an ordeal, the passage of every bill will be an uncertainty and every debate is bound to be acrimonious and irreconcilable. Yet we, as the prajas of those unstable rajas, have nothing else to do but keep hoping, for at the poles there could be only one direction the wind can blow. Or is the worst yet to come? God save the country. Superstitious again?
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