This time, they wanted to embarrass the government through a cut motion on the finance bill over the rising prices. Considering that the BJP sided with the front, as over the nuclear deal, there was reason for the government to worry.
Except for one thing. The new front is different from the old one. If the number of parties is taken into account, there is no change. Like the earlier front, this one, too, has 13 constituents - an unlucky number if its lack of success is considered. But while the Samajwadi Party has returned to the fold like the prodigal son, the BSP has left it.
This switching of roles is not surprising. It is no secret that these two parties are at loggerheads in UP. It was only when the Samajwadi Party joined hands with the Congress last year that the BSP responded to Prakash Karat's overtures to join the front. And now that Mulayam Singh Yadav has rejoined his old friends of the Left, Mayawati has shown signs of moving closer to the Congress. To help her make up her mind, the latter appears to have hinted, via the CBI, that the disproportionate assets cases against her may not be pursued as vigorously as before.
It is these movements in and out of the front by its members which underline its basic weakness. In addition, there are other weaknesses as well. For instance, the Third Front is supposed to be an alliance of non-Congress and non-BJP parties. Yet, as the examples of last year and also this year show, it has had no compunctions about an indirect tie-up with the BJP in parliament, if not in the streets outside, to needle the Congress.
But even if this proximity to the BJP is explained away as a tactical move, the other debilitating feature of the group - its lack of internal cohesion - cannot be ignored. Nor is the reason for this fragility unknown. Since virtually all the Third Front entities are state-level parties, each one of them is extremely sensitive about any other outfit which may have a base in the same province.
As a result, some of the parties automatically cancel each other out in the matter of being in the same front, like the Samajwadi Party and the BSP because of their enmity in U.P., and the DMK and the AIADMK for the same reason in Tamil Nadu. The influences of some of the other parties are so limited, like those of Lalu Yadav's RJD and Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janashakti Party in Bihar, and of Ajit Singh Rashtriya Lok Dal in U.P, that their main objective of remaining in the front is to prop up one another.
Then, there are the lone rangers, like the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa and the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh, which do have a substantial base although their earlier association with the BJP is a reminder of the front's saffron taint
But more than these past records and present compulsions, what is obvious about a combination of this nature is not only its opportunism, but also the fact that it cannot be expected to achieve anything positive. It cannot form a government because of the internal contradictions of the constituents while the absence of a national outlook because of their state-level preoccupations is bound to invite rejection from the voters.
The four Left parties - the CPI(M), the CPI, the RSP and the Forward Bloc - may provide the front with some kind of an ideological veneer, but how far the other, caste-based outfits of Yadavs, Dalits and Jats will subscribe to the professed Leftist rhetoric is open to question.
It was perhaps because of the sheer negativism of the front, along with its ignominious collapse last year, which made the CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury say that its purpose was not to destabilize the government, but to draw attention to the suffering of the people caused by high fuel and fertilizer prices as also the inflationary trends.
The front's lack of viability undoubtedly remains its main handicap, not least because of the absence of leadership, for there is no one charismatic enough in the 13 parties to rise to the top and be accepted by all. It is difficult, therefore, to see the front serving any purpose other than to draw attention to the fractured political scene. (IPA Service)
INDIA: THIRD FRONT YET TO TAKE A FINAL SHAPE
PROGRAMMATIC UNDERSTANDING IS DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE
Amulya Ganguli - 2010-04-27 09:28
They are back — the valiant Third Front warriors who threatened to topple the Manmohan Singh government over the nuclear deal last year. After having lain low following the electoral reverses, it has taken the members of the motley combination some time to get back to their feet. But the government's latest troubles - over IPL, phone-tapping, anti-Maoist operations - have reignited their earlier ambition.