Is India fit for coalition politics? There is nothing new in this question. This very question is being asked since the late seventies when the country first got a taste of coalition politics. Today the question has become more pertinent as one after another coalition experiments are meeting failures. The other day as coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support, Jammu Kashmir had to be put under Governor’s rule. Before that Telegu Desham (TDP) walked out of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) though it did not result in the collapse of the central government. Down west, BJP’s oldest ally Shiv Sena has already announced that it would not continue its alliance with the saffron party after 2019. In Assam, BJP-Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) government is on shaky grounds over the proposed amendment in country’s Citizenship law. Both the BJP and Akali Dal are waiting for an appropriate moment to announce the end of their alliance in Punjab. This is the track record of BJP which is in power at the Centre and ruling 19 states with its allies.
One the other hand, the track record of opposition parties is equally bad, if not worse regarding alliances. The new found friendship between Samajbadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is nothing but an act of survival. Till the last Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2017, these two parties were engaged in bitter fight in the State. But after being buried under BJP onslaught in the said election, now the two parties have joined hands to defeat BJP. This alliance has tasted success in three Lok Sabha byelections too. But everyone knows that the alliance will not last long as it has been formed just to oust BJP from power. Similar developments were witnessed in Karnataka. To keep BJP out of power, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) formed an hurried alliance to rule the State even after levelling all sorts of allegations against each other during campaigning. Now the effort is on to form a pan-India alliance against BJP. The opposition parties may enter in to such an alliance before general elections in 2019, but clearly it will be an opportunistic partnership with the sole aim to defeat BJP and grab power at the Centre.
We all know the fate of such experiments. Starting from 1979, no such experiments achieved any success. In 1989, V. P. Singh Government lasted only for 17 months. Chandrasekhar Government lasted for an even shorter period. The story is similar with H. D. Devegowda and I. K. Gujral Governments too. Both these governments lasted little over a year. In such a scenario, it would be an exaggeration to claim that coalition politics has made a successful entry into Indian politics. Rather, it had gifted India political uncertainty. In the nineties, Indian voters had to vote in four general elections. All these happened because parties with different ideologies and policies came together just to get a taste of power. But the lust for power is not enough to keep a coalition intact forever. A coalition can only be successful when there will be definite policies on how to run the country. Otherwise, any experiment with coalition is bound to fall sooner than later.
