Considering that corruption has long been the Congress's defining image in the eyes of the public, it is just as well that the party has started some kind of a belated spring cleaning. The dismissals of Ashok Chavan and Suresh Kalmadi, the refusal to have anything to do with Shibu Soren in Jharkhand and the maintenance of some kind of a distance from the Janata Dal (S) in Karnataka are faint signs that the Congress is steering a path free of dubious personalities.

In this respect, the sacking of Raja gives it an ideal opportunity to refashion its coalition politics. As is known, Raja held on to his post till the bitter end because of the undeserving support from his party, the DMK. The latter, led by the octogenarian M.K. Karunanidhi, whose personal image has been declining by the day, insisted that Raja had done no wrong, which carried the implied threat that any action against him would make the DMK withdraw its support.

However, the threat did not dissuade Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. May be, they realized that it was a bluff which had to be called. After all, the DMK was not in a position to withdraw support from the Congress in Delhi without breaking the alliance in Chennai to Jayalalitha's advantage. It is also known that the Congress has not been too comfortable about its ties with the DMK. As Rahul Gandhi's occasional visits to Tamil Nadu and reluctance to meet Karunanidhi suggest, the Congress may be considering the possibility of going it alone there, as in Bihar and U.P.

The reason is that the DMK has lost its earlier lustre. Karunanidhi's advancing age and the looming succession battle between his two sons, his favourite M.K. Stalin, now the deputy chief minister, and the not-so-favourite M.K. Alagiri, the unimpressive Union minister, whose brief stays in the national capital have not uplifted the DMK's image. Given this background, and in the aftermath of Jayalalithaa's offer to bail out the Congress in case of trouble, there was no way that the DMK could have continued to defy the Congress.

But, now that the Congress has perked up its courage to snub it, the next step should be to ensure that no other ally is able to hold it hostage as the DMK did for such a long time. Instead, it must be made clear that the choice of portfolios and the appointment and dismissal of the ministers will be the prime minister's prerogative. All that the allies can do is to recommend the names of their nominees. But it will be up to the prime minister to accept or reject them or privately suggest some other name.

There is nothing unexceptionable about such norms. They have long been the routine features of the cabinet system. If they have been honoured in the breach in India with the allies being given the right to nominate their ministers and select their portfolios, the explanation lies in the eagerness of the No. 1 parties, whether the Congress or the BJP, to keep their partners in good humour in order to, first, form a government and, secondly, to prevent them from bringing it down by withdrawing support.

It is this virtual helplessness of the No. 1 parties which enables the allies to dictate terms. The Raja episode is the first of its kind in the new era of coalition politics where the leader of the pack has told one of its followers that certain limits could not be crossed. It was easy in this particular case because of the gargantuan nature of the scam involving Raja and the strictures he received from the Supreme Court, the CAG and some former bureaucrats. Had the charges of corruption been relatively minor, he would have probably escaped. But the message needs reiteration.

It has to be admitted, however, that pressure from the allies can have a positive aspect. In the NDA's case, for instance, the Janata Dal (United)'s “secularism” has prevented the BJP from moving too far to the right. Similarly, the Congress's absence of a majority has been a check on its authoritarian tendencies. It is in the matter of corruption, however, that no party in an alliance can be allowed to run wild. (IPA Service)