Commentary/Saisuresh Sivaswamy

Advani's acquittal has plus points for both Congress and UF

Timing, it is often emphasised, is of the essence in politics, and this is another home-truth that must have bulldozed its way to Congress president Sitaram Kesri in the last 24 hours.

Poor guy, he must have thought he had everything worked out to a fine detail when he decided to pull the carpet from under the United Front's collective feet. The timing, he must have thought, was perfect -- the international ignominy of losing the moral right to continue in office at a time when path-breaking talks were being held with Pakistan would result in H D Deve Gowda remitting office.

This, plus the added humiliation of not being able to have the Union Budget passed in Parliament, should have sent any self-respecting politician packing. But who can blame Kesri when the only precedent before him was a touch-me-not politician like Chandra Shekhar who walked our rather than walk the gauntlet under Rajiv Gandhi? These days, thanks to liberalisation perhaps, teflon comes cheap, making it easily affordable for politicians.

The last 10 days's brinkmanship surely will have a fallout on the future relationship between the Congress and the United Front -- that is, assuming that the two are able to overcome the present set of difficulties.

And it is very clear that despite so much water having flowed under the Yamuna, despite epithets like nikamma and communalist that were freely bandied about, the UF will have to make up with the Congress.

There is no way a rapprochement can be prevented, now that the courts have given a clean chit to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Kishinchand Advani. This is the much-needed shot in the arm of BJP, which has, of late, experienced a seesaw in its fortunes. Every step it has taken forward has been followed with one backwards. This time, too, this seems to hold true.

If Advani's exoneration strengthens the BJP's bid to capture New Delhi, the resounding victory of its former strongman Shankarsinh Vaghela in Gujarat is an unwelcome reality. However, it is the BJP that is best placed among all political parties, if the Congress and the UF are unable to come to an understanding and goes for an early poll. If it fought the election on the defensive with Advani under a cloud last time, this time it would really be on the roll.

And the division of votes that will be engendered by the split between the Congress and the UF will add to the BJP's burgeoning kitty.

There is not much time left for the two warring sides. If the raison d'etre behind their understanding an year ago was to keep the BJP out as the two sides claim, any breakdown in talks between them will directly benefit the saffron brigade. It will render waste the efforts of the past 10 months.

The Congress president's dilemma is unique. Having taken a step that is unprecedented in the nation's political history, he cannot retract it without inviting the sharks in his party to his Viking funeral. He has already scaled down his demand from withdrawing support to replacing Deve Gowda as prime minister, which is as far as he can go.

Now it is up to the UF leadership to take a decision that will not be clouded by false reasoning and empty pride. Granted, prime ministership is not negotiable, nor is it a merry-go-round. But when the leadership has failed to see where its various acts of omission and commission are taking the fragile alliance, then it deserves to go.

It is well that this crisis occurred. For, the lessons UF learnt will not be forgotten in a hurry and may even enable them to see the next four years through.

But the sides need to be reminded of the lessons. The first is that the UF should not forget it is dependent on the Congress's support in Parliament. This does not mean that the government should brush under the carpet whatever legal proceedings are being carried out against the Congress leaders; it only means that these proceedings need not be given the status of a vendetta, and one can be sure, given the alert judiciary in the country, even Kesri will not want to stymie the course of law.

The second lesson for the UF leadership is that the man in the hot seat -- especially in a trying circumstance like this -- needs to be, first and foremost, a skilled man manager. The UF needs to do without the kind of backstreet games that characterise small-town politicians. Unfortunately, this seems to have become the mainstay of the Deve Gowda regime.

If these two things are kept in mind by this 13 party formation, the rest of the things that were nothing but minor irritants but which assumed the proportions of a national calamity because the above two lessons were not kept in mind, will resolve themselves.

Of course, the most important message from the last 10 days shadow-boxing is to keep talking regardless of what happens. If Deve Gowda had spoken to Kesri when the perceived slight during the Ramzan iftaari occurred and not let journalists become go-betweens, if the two had spoken everytime problems arose and not kept simmering within themselves, the nation would have been spared this drama.

And when it seemed that ego would come in the way of smooth governance, once again the courts have shown that they can be relied upon to do the right thing. Sparing Advani, thus, has its plus points for both the Congress and UF.

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