ENOUGH indications are available over the ground that the I.N.D.I. Alliance is breaking up in the wake of the recent legislative elections in five States. An internal blame game has begun in right earnest and knives are out to cut one another in every possible manner. The focus of the blaming, obviously, is the Congress party which thinks that it is the natural leader of the I.N.D.I. Alliance. Most other parties in the grouping feel that the Congress party has given them a raw deal and has ignored their rightful place in the sun. If this is happening on the surface, beneath it are the roots of a serious break-up much before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The purpose for which the grouping was formed -- to oust Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the hustings -- does not seem feasible in the current condition of Indian politics, so to say. And because that purpose has begun meeting with signs of failure, the I.N.D.I. Alliance, too, seems to begin showing early signs of decay, to say the least. There, of course, are people in the grouping to insist that things are all right and the I.N.D.I. Alliance is marching in the right direction. True, the grouping’s December 6 meeting has been cancelled -- because many leaders that included West Bengal Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party leader Mr. Akhilesh Yadav said that they were not available on the date.

 

Some other leaders such as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Mr. M. K. Stalin, too, were unwilling to join the meeting. So, the event now stands postponed to another convenient date still to be announced. Thus, as things stand now, the I.N.D.I. Alliance has begun facing trouble that may prove to be its undoing. Such issues were bound to arise in the I.N.D.I. Alliance, thanks to the diverse nature of its membership. For, all the constituent parties had been working at cross-purposes for decades on end. In the recent legislative elections in five States, they also fought against one another and ignored -- consciously or unconsciously -- the interests of one another. With such conflict of interests, it was not easy for any organisation to weave a strong fabric of unity. The grouping is suffering from all these fault-lines which promise to continue no matter the political tall talk and propaganda. The biggest loser is, obviously, the Congress party. It has come under fire from most other constituents of the grouping for having looked after only its own interests and not those of the entire camp. But the Congress party can also claim a gain for itself -- in the sense it fought and won the Telangana elections all on its own.

 

It did lose, all right, the elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, but is now in a position to claim that it fought the battle all alone. Thus, from a national perspective, it got a chance to test its mettle against the all-powerful Bharatiya Janata Party. This knowledge will do a world of good since it can now redraw its plan for the Lok Sabha elections if in case the I.N.D.I. Alliance could not hold itself together. In other words, the Congress party got a chance to test itself in the electoral arena straight against the BJP. Varying interpretations, thus, may be available to explain the situation vis-a-vis I.N.D.I. Alliance. Beyond all those, one thing that proves itself beyond doubt that the political and electoral utility of the new grouping has come under cloud and this condition may not change for the better in the coming months. There may not be a declared break-up of the grouping, all right. But the arrangement may not stand the test of time in the coming months as the rigours of realpolitik stretch things in different directions.