With power comes great responsibility

The sense of euphoria in the Congress party is understandable. Its 206-seat tally is delicious pudding compared to the gruel the party’s leaders and followers had survived on in the last five years, and for eight years before that. But it will have to be realised sooner than later that the voters have moved the party from the bottom to the top end of Dante’s Purgatorio. They have not been shifted to Paradiso. They are still tied to coalition partners. There is more elbow room. But they are not free to do what they like. There is room neither for complacency nor arrogance, to which Congress members are so habituated.

What seems to have weighed most with the voters was the economy. They wanted a way out of the present uncertainty. Prime minister Manmohan Singh seemed to have inspired trust among the people on this issue compared to the other claimants. This is not to detract from the creditable work done by party president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi bravely sticking with Singh, and keeping the wolves in the party and outside at bay.

There is a note of caution in the mandate for Singh. He is not meant to ride hobby horses like he did last time over the India-US nuclear deal, something which he made the centrepiece of his policy neglecting more important issues like the economy. It was a useful deal but it was not worth being turned into the keystone of his prime ministerial tenure. Secondly, he should not expect to override his critics, especially when they are in a weaker position. For good or bad, the critics serve a useful purpose of keeping one to the course. Last time, the Left, for all its nuisance value, had fulfilled the role.

The greater danger is when there in no opposition worth its name. Congress suffered disastrously from the absence of opposition in 1971 under Indira Gandhi and in 1984 under Rajiv Gandhi.  It could very well happen this time too because the opposition is so weakened. Congress should not believe that it has vanquished the opposition. It has not. The voters have kept them alive and they will strike back if the Congress fails to keep to the track.

People have not rejected other parties like the BJP, the BSP, the SP and the communists outright, and they did not give an unqualified mandate to the Congress and its UPA partners either. The political picture is still a crowded, if not a confusing, one. It is a fine balance of forces, where everyone has been allotted enough space to survive. People want to hear all the voices. The Indian polity is a polyphonic and not a symmetrical symphony without dissonant notes. It has to remain that way for democracy to flourish.

The other section which needs to check its untrammelled jubilation is that of the uncritical and uninformed pro-market lobby, including the industry bodies. There is this wild sentiment here that the communists have been edged out and there is no need for caution of any kind in implementing big ticket reforms. The communists were beaten back in West Bengal for what they did in Singur and Nandigram, and not for airing their criticism over the nuclear deal or for impeding the implementation of reforms measures in Parliament. In Kerala, it was the Left Front’s corruption that did it in.

The financial meltdown and the plight of USA 2008-2009 should serve as a serious warning of the dangers of manic market sentiments. This is a moment of grave reflection for supporters of free markets and not for a supercilious attitude towards those who differ from them. As in the political sphere, it is dangerous if there is no opposition and no alternatives in the market place.

Business cannot be allowed to get away with gifts from a friendly government in the form of stimulus packages without the obligation of creating jobs to keep the economy humming. It is now for the private sector to face the truth that there are no free lunches.