Many a politician has made his or her name for such penchants of handling crisis when the political leaders of different parties are not able to see eye-to-eye or even talk. People like George Fernandes, S Jaipal Reddy, Amar Singh etc were always seen playing the “bridge role” cutting across party lines and bringing parties together during the coalition era.
With stakes of every political party high and their egos sky-rocketting, during the crisis, it becomes almost next to impossible for the top leaders to lay their cards on the negotiating table and especially when the hawk-eyed media is constantly lurching behind on their every move. The absence of such crisis managers or consensus personalities is visibly seen missing now in the current Rajasthan political upheaval.
In the recent past, coalition politics at the Centre and in the State was the order of the day and clear majority in any House whether Parliament or State Assemblies, was hardly seen. In fact, NDA and the UPA governments at the Centre had at least twenty, if not more political parties coming together to form a stable government. With wafer thin majority and to keep the ego of all coalition political partners massaged is a difficult proposition and all parties did require such “man Fridays” in their parties.
Efforts have been made in the recent past by various opposition parties to come together and show their solidarity against the present Modi government but none of them have fructified as the issues are so diverse and every political party is up for the grab of the bigger slice of the cake.
In May 2018 the opposition luminaries had gathered in the swearing-in ceremony of Kumaraswamy in Karnataka but that “experiment” did not last long as the government collapsed due to effective engineering by the BJP in the State supported by the Centre and internal muscle flexing by the Congress before the Janata Dal (Secular) government. Yet again there were no consensus personalities either in JD(S) or in Congress to sort out the crisis which emerged in the State.
The Congress had offered unconditional support to the JD (S), despite lashing out at the party during the Karnataka poll campaign, the desperation in the opposition was evident. Political experts had also raised doubts over the longevity of the JD(S)-Congress alliance, considering the rivalry between the workers of both parties on the ground. However, the senior leadership of both parties had affirmed that they are ready to hold on for the sake of “keeping the secular fabric” of the State intact, and to keep “communal forces out of power”.
Similarly in January 2019, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also set a stage for all the Opposition parties to come together. Twenty three parties did join the “mega rally” but the conspicuous absence of big Congress leaders in that rally did not go well with the opposition leaders and it also fell flat. In fact Congress was represented by Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Yet another attempt was made in December last year during the swearing-in ceremony of Jharkhand’s chief minister Hemant Soren. It was expected to serve as a show of strength by top leaders of political parties opposed to the BJP at a time when the latter confronted stiff resistance to the new citizenship law it had pushed through Parliament.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi did take the centre stage in the galaxy of Opposition leaders present during the ceremony which included Chief Ministers Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan and Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D Raja, RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president MK Stalin, party MP Kanimozhi and T.R. Baalu, Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav also took part in the ceremony. It was a big show then after this event too, the bon homie between all these different parties is little to be seen when nation issues are discussed in the Parliament.
Since 2019 with the stalwarts in political management especially George Fernandes, S Jaipal Reddy and Amar Singh passing away, a void has been created. With political parties such as BJP which have emerged very strong in the Centre and Congress decimated to little over 50 MPs in the Lok Sabha, the role of consensus personalities seems to have diminished in the presence of larger than life figure of political leaders.
