Of allies and all lies

The poll circus in TN got off to a rousing start. The opening show was dominated by the Cong and the DMK: while the former played the tough ringmaster, the latter slipped on the daredevil tightrope it had chosen to tread and landed hard on the ground of reality after a few clumsy somersaults. And many chinks too came tumbling out during the course of that near-fatal fall.

K’s familiar shock and awe bluff became mere buffoonery for many reasons. First, the DMK’s voluntary exit from the UPA was precisely what the Cong wanted and K unwittingly walked into the trap, only to walk out of it with mud on the moustache. Two, the DMK ministers that included a couple of kin, had no intention of resigning from the Cabinet: power in Delhi is a heady cocktail that afflicts and addicts even rustics from Madurai, lingo limitations notwithstanding. It can be even more handy, if the Sun sets in the State next month. Three, the CBI brief on the 2G probe appears to be ‘Fix the DMK, nix the Cong links’, despite the SC watch. Absence in the Central Government will render the DMK an easier and quicker target. There is no point in losing the only insurance, whatever it is worth. And last, a solo show minus the Cong is sure suicide, particularly when the AIADMK had stitched up a seemingly strong alliance. Reason why allies like the PMK were desperate to save the deal. Salvaging self-respect can always be set aside for a better day!

Therefore, it was that the much-touted Dravidian self-respect gave company to the doormats at 10 Janpath, while the DMK emissaries crawled in on all fours. There are reports that Saint Sonia lost her cool, cold shouldered her visitors from the South and served them a chilling sermon on alliance etiquettes. She had declared, we hear, that the Indian National Congress, a party of yore, could not be held to ransom, just like that. We are tempted to ask what party she was heading in May 2009 when the DMK did just that during ministry formation, but let us skip the urge. The point is, with the DMK blinking first and fast, the Cong by default had its way by getting 63 chosen seats. My guess is the Cong would have still preferred an alliance with DMK even with the latter out of the UPA; a very dicey option actually for the grand old party. While the UPA could have survived despite the DMK’s exit, the Cong cannot expect a decent tally on its own, particularly with a pre-poll pact with the AIADMK being a closed option. Indeed, by waiting out the DMK bluff, the Cong actually got away with its own. But wait: the next comic interlude could well be a Cong show. With 63 seats up for grabs expect a no-holds-barred factional war in the TNCC, a tamasha that could tickle you to your bones.

Amid all this action, it was all quiet on the opposition front, its constituents preferring to be spectators. Anxious ones, no doubt, for, a break in DMK-Cong would mean many things to the many parties. Only the previous amavasya evening, V’kanth, after peddling himself for many moons as an alternative to the two Dravidian parties, signed a pact with the AIADMK. Now, a Cong on the loose would mean an opening, albeit late, for that dream of a third alternative. The AIADMK, which had already offered itself as a partner to the Cong, was waiting for the latter to come calling. A foothold for the Cong in the AIADMK front would have meant the boot for the two Left parties and they, along with Vaiko’s MDMK, would have been forced to cross Dr Radhakrishnan Salai to Gopalapuram. Other one-seat wonders will evaporate in the Cong’s thirst and quest for seats. Indeed, small surprise that not a statement emanated from those quarters for the four days that the drama persisted. And once Cong-DMK sheathed their daggers, the sour grapes chorus started as if on cue.

Of course, all these cold calculations go above our heads. I wonder where the voter figures in the seamy, shady and sordid shenanigans that alliance politics is all about. The core presumption that underlines all seat-sharing deals between parties is that the voter is a mute non-entity and can be taken for granted. His vote is deemed transferable tender at the disposal of the party he is loyal to. It is assumed that a DMK voter would have no problems voting for a Cong candidate or vice versa, despite the ugly war of words and threats at the leadership level. Leaders can dither and damn anyone at will and then rub shoulders. But the voter has to bury the hatchet when his party buries it and dig it up when his leader ups the ante. He has no will of his own and somehow this too comes under the umbrella of self-respect. Ditto with supporters and voters of all parties. V’Kanth’s parivar who had been fed on a diet of anti-AIADMK rhetoric will now have to swallow all those tipsy exchanges and clap for Amma when she comes seeking his vote for ‘her’ candidate. The loyal voters of all pillion parties seamlessly move between fronts in total sync with their party leaderships with nary a murmur on how friends can turn foes or otherwise at the drop of a towel. The four-day Cong-DMK farce of a fight fest was a parade of this phenomenon.

Most of us rue the promiscuity inherent in alliance politics. But can the spate of one-night-stands and the sight of strange bedfellows be sustained without an equally promiscuous voting crowd? Aah, how we wish all vote banks go bust!

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