Having been without a talking point for a year after last year’s defeat, the charges of sleaze involving the Congress have come as a godsend for the BJP. It is loathe to let go of this opportunity, therefore, to corner the Congress even if it means stalling parliament from one session to another. However, Murli Manohar Joshi has already exposed the chinks in its armour by undertaking his own task of probing the spectrum scam via the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), of which he is the chairman. Now, Nitish Kumar’s clean chit to the prime minister means that not everyone in the NDA is totally behind the BJP in this matter.

True, Nitish Kumar has supported the demand for a JPC probe. But by absolving the prime minister of any taint even while admitting that his “governance” might not have been “up to the mark”, he virtually echoed Sen’s views although he could not have been aware of them. However, the meeting of their minds points to a mature and sober appraisal of a critical situation, which is in striking contrast to the BJP’s shrill attempt to squeeze the last drop of political juice out of the controversy.

The BJP’s conduct is, of course, typical of politicians who see every issue through the coloured glasses of their partisan objectives. In this particular case, it clearly does not matter to the BJP if the parliamentary system is brought into disrepute by its disruptive tactics as long as it believes that it is gaining a few political points by at least staying in the limelight. Nitish Kumar has shown, however, that he does not see everything in partisan terms. Just as he focussed on the essentially non-political endeavours relating to development and law and order to win the recent Bihar elections, he is not willing to indulge in political theatrics over the corruption charges either.

Sen’s approach is the same. Hence, his observations that, first, the critics may be “overestimating the power of the prime minister”, especially in a coalition where “you have to placate a certain number of people”. And, secondly, the prime minister has to act without fearing the loss of the parliamentary majority and the “political chaos” that may ensue. Instead of focussing on the individual, therefore, Sen wants the emphasis to be on the systemic flaws, “on the nature of the political, social and particularly economic and moral ethic that have come to prevail. Otherwise, “you can shoot Manmohan Singh, you can shoot his successor”, but the fundamental problem will remain.

For the political class, however, there is no question of turning the spotlight on the moral issue since the hands of none of them are clean. In the BJP’s case, for instance, it had to keep all the NDA chief ministers out of the New Delhi rally in support of the JPC demand because B.S. Yeddyurappa’s presence would have undermined the party’s diatribes against corrupt practices.

Besides, the BJP might have been wary of Nitish Kumar’s independent thinking. It is not only his support for Manmohan Singh which shows that the Bihar chief minister has a mind of his own. He has also spoken in favour of the Rajinder Sachar committee report on the minorities, which is criticized by the BJP, and defied his own party, the JD (U)’s line on the women’s reservation bill. Then, of course, he had kept Narendra Modi and Varun Gandhi out of the Bihar election campaign.

But it isn’t the BJP alone which has to be careful about targeting Manmohan Singh in future. Within the Congress, too, the prime minister’s detractors will have to watch their steps and not only because of Sonia Gandhi’s description of the gentle Sardar as an embodiment of dignity and integrity. The reason is the realization in the Congress that the prime minister’s honest image has become the sole saving grace of the party in this season of scams.

The attempt to turn the focus on “Hindu terror” by the first family’s new voluble retainer, Digvijay Singh, may raise some dust, but not enough to hide the series of scandals affecting the Congress. The only thing that can help is Manmohan Singh’s still untarnished reputation, to which Sen and Nitish Kumar have testified. From being an “accidental” prime minister, as Manmohan Singh said about himself, he has now become an indispensable asset for the Congress. (IPA Service)