FACTUALLY, the Opposition-sponsored I.N.D.I. Alliance lasted far longer than its natural life-cycle. For, factually, this alliance never got started since its founding convener, Mr. Nitish Kumar, deserted it before even its formal launch. Later, with a clock-like regularity, this or that partner of the alliance kept straying out of the ambit for its own reasons. And even when the alliance held on to itself somehow, it was dogged by a half-open-half-silent leadership tussle. The INDI Alliance, thus, never acted as a genuine common front -- since its partners kept contesting elections against one another as well in areas of their respective influences. Dogged by deceit and flagged by lack of mutual loyalty, the alliance became sort of an “Annoyance” that everybody immediately recognised.

 

The last hit on its so-called unity came now when the Dravida Munetra Kazagham (DMK) decided to shun its June 8 meeting, and also secured the Speaker’s permission to sit separately in the Lok Sabha -- especially away from the Congress party that ditched the alliance in the post-election in Tamil Nadu. This was bound to happen. In fact, it was expected to happen much earlier, but the alliance kept its tenuous existence up because many of its partner-parties showed a remarkable maturity in the larger interest. But all that in-good-faith action was betrayed by the Congress party every now and then, the peak of which came in Tamil Nadu when Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s party chose to shift its loyalties to emerging leader Mr. C Joseph Vijay who became Chief Minister. The DMK did not approve of this deception and declared its intentions to get out of INDI Alliance. That has now become a political reality -- leading to the defeat of the very idea of INDI Alliance.

 

Politics of convenience, thus, has proved to be the undoing of the INDI Alliance. Of course, the INDI Alliance would continue on paper for a while. But there should be no doubt that slowly but surely, most partner parties would find their way out of the camp on this or that pretext. In the next some time, the alliance would see its own end -- at least unofficially. Even as the INDI Alliance was being formed, political observers were almost sure that it would not last for long. That assessment has been proved correct and the alliance is on the verge of break-up. Some believers of classic democracy feel disturbed by such a development. For, they expect that in a healthy democracy, a strong Opposition is an essential component -- as counter-weight to the Government. This is, certainly, a genuine expectation. Yet, the Opposition is itself fully responsible for such a state of affairs. For, the top brains in the Opposition camp do not have an effective response to the politics and policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National democratic Alliance (NDA) it leads.

 

The Opposition leaders are dogged by personal ambition, and mugged by their internal rivalries. They also are bereft on the front of ideological belief-system and democratic values. On each such count, the BJP is strong and beautifully-focused. How can the INDI Alliance be expected to put up a serious fight against the much stronger BJP ? To this question, there is no practical answer with the Opposition camp. For, whatever the Opposition says or does often ends up in some or the other disaster. Its leaders have no patience and persistence to think of a lasting narrative that could pin the BJP down. They also lack the necessary intelligence to counter the BJP’s initiatives. As a result, the BJP keeps making high scores in different elections -- and reducing the Opposition’s strength at every step of the way. Generally, the Congress party is blamed for such a debacle. For, it is the biggest and the oldest of the INDI Alliance parties and often insists upon being treated as INDIA leader. Yet, its own track record in politics or philosophy has been abominable -- which got proved with its quick-silver shift to Mr. Vijay’s favour. The DMK was quick to snap ties with the Congress party, and declared its divorce from the INDI Alliance.