Commentary/Mani Shankar Aiyar

If only Jyotibabu had not demurred...

Watching Jyoti Basu's triumphal progress through Bangladesh, one cannot help reflecting on how differently this country might have been governed (and viewed by the outside world) had Jyoti Basu risen to his responsibility of leaving Calcutta for New Delhi last May. Not that he had sought the elevation -- or that people like me had wanted to see it happen. But that when history, flowing through one of its more cunning passages, had determined that the nation's destiny must be entrusted to a coalition of parties, Jyoti Basu shirked his duty to the nation.

Compared to Jyoti Basu, the rival contenders were small fry. None of them could claim national status, except V P Singh who was of deeply discredited national status. Karunanidhi could have claimed comparability in terms of experience: he became chief minister all of eight years before Jyoti Basu got to Writers Buildings, but he had only just clambered back to Fort St George whereas Jyotibabu was on the edge of commencing his third uninterrupted decade as CM of West Bengal.

And Chandrababu Naidu was too new to leave his fledgling government in Hyderabad in other hands. As for the two Yadavs, Laloo and Mulayam, the former had just yielded ground to the BJP- Samata, while the latter was running a distant and, as events have shown, an uncertain second.

That left Jyoti Basu as the obvious choice. The crown was offered to him. There was a rumour in the air that he was personally inclined to accept the challenge. I happened to be in the PTI office when a flash came on the ticker that the CPI-M had demurred. And thus it came about that we slid into this dreadfully pedestrian age of Deve Gowda.

Had he accepted, consider, would any of this have happened:

The prime minister sneaking into Parliament through the Rajya Sabha;

The home minister undermining the validity of the elections in Kashmir;

The governor being appointed to the largest state of the Union, and that too on the eve of a crucial election, without anyone knowing quite why;

Andhra Pradesh doubting the impartiality of the prime minister on Almatti;

Tamil Nadu doubting the impartiality of the prime minister on the Cauvery;

The armed forces being asked to raise a regiment because a few chaps can be recruited from the prime minister's home state;

The AGP being promised the repeal of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, followed by the promise itself being repealed;

The Uttarakhandis being promised a state of their own and then being told, sorry, the deal's off, we didn't win UP anyway;

The women of India being offered 30 per cent seats in Parliament, only for bargaining to begin over whether 15 per cent or even 1.5 per cent would not do;

The South Africans being told that there is nothing to their country but a bit of scenery and some wildlife;

Fifteen little Jyoti Basus being carted around the world, ready to pay for air tickets that cannot be bought;

Prime Minister Jr helping himself gratis to sarees, handicrafts and whatnot at stores around Guwahati, allegedly to promote awareness of Assam's export potential in his home state;

Two key ministers, railways and communications, granting bonuses of hundreds of millions while the finance minister fumes and the fiscal deficit goes through the roof -- and the prime minister himself gently nods off;

A precipitate fall in petroleum production that is about to throw our balance of payments completely out of gear;

All the above happening within six months of the government assuming office?