Apropos A K Bhattacharya’s column “Alliance reality dawns on Congress” (New Delhi Diary, December 26), the meeting of minds between the Congress and the ruling government has led to the roping in of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to approve important proposals. The behaviour of these two parties in Parliament revealed that they would bark but not bite. They opposed the foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail but abstained from, or voted in its favour, to create the fiction of the majority and save the government. Clearly, they are unlikely to trigger a Lok Sabha election before 2014 owing to political and personal considerations. After the latest Assembly elections, both the parties are concentrating on their performance in Uttar Pradesh, while their party leaders are under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) scanner. It’s another matter that CBI would not succumb to government pressure to clear issues against them. On the other hand, their support should induce the government to push through reforms earlier stalled by the Trinamool Congress and other defiant allies. It’s also to be noted that the SP and the BSP’s actions have eroded the moral fabric of the Indian polity. They are guided by self-serving reasons, and not a concern for public good or ideology. They experience no ethical dilemma in their deeds.
Y G Chouksey Pune
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