Ultimately, it was the BJP's underlying anxiety to keep itself in power by hook or by crook, that has forced another general election on the people of the country. At the same time it is trying to hoodwink the people by blaming other parties for the dissolution of parliament. The fact of the matter is that the BJP did not want to give up power inspite of the growing contradictions among its allies. In spite of the various opportunist compromises and placating, hardly a day passed during this regime when their allies did not show dissent. Always there was a challenge and demands everyday, of cooperation and non-cooperation from most of the allies. And ultimately it was as a result of this that the major ally Jayalalitha withdrew support, resulting in the fall of the government.

They did not gracefully decide to step down and pave the way for another government. Parliamentary practice shows that when one government is defeated it gives way for another government, so that the people can judge on the basis of the performance of these governments. Instead of doing this, immediately after their defeat, knowing fully well that the majority of members of the Lok Sabha were against them, the BJP resorted to all methods, fair and foul, to muster a majority. As in the making of their majority when the government was formed, they again turned to their favourite policy of horse-trading, together with unleashing widespread propaganda that they must stay in power. Trying to bypass all accepted parliamentary practice, they vigorously pressed the suggestion that they could form the government again under some other leader.

If the BJP had not resorted to all these tactics to maintain itself in power, then immediately after their defeat an alternative could have emerged. Instead it started campaigning and stating that they can prove their majority. How is that immediately after getting defeated they could gain added strength, when in fact two votes against the confidence motion could not be registered. The only way this could have been possible was through horse-trading. They want to denigrate the system itself, otherwise this claim would not have been made. Had they not made such false claims an alternative could have emerged. They tried to create confusion and also created a fear in the minds of the MPs that if they go, parliament will get dissolved. They had thought that the President would yield to their propaganda but they did not succeed.

Many deputations were organised, trying to legitimise this stand, even to putting repeated pressure on the President to accept this viewpoint. A perusal of the statements issued and the way the media was used, clearly -exposes their stance, that whatever the democratic norms, the BJP was not prepared to give up power. Had they submitted to the verdict of parliament and peacefully tendered their resignation, a new government could have come into existence. But they chose to forget the norms only for the sake of being in power.

While the President met a wide range of people representing the political parties, legal luminaries, and constitutional experts, to come to a fair and democratic conclusion, the BJP continued with their one-point programme - nobody else should be allowed to rule the country. Ultimately, after a ten-day of exercise, the President came to the conclusion that neither the Opposition nor the BJP had been able to prove that they could provide a stable government, and he called the Prime Minister and informed him that there was no other way out except dissolution of the Lok Sabha and fresh elections.

POST-DISSOLUTION

Even after the decision announced by the President, what has been the stand of the BJP and its old and new allies? Now the demand is for elections to be held immediately, without giving the necessary time for preparations. Their purpose? Once again to mislead the people. Arguing that though the opposition was able to defeat them, it was not able to form an alternative government. And after all, they were defeated by only one vote. It is they who had the mandate of the people. They forget, and want the people to forget by what method , and with how many votes they came to power a year ago. Had not the TDP come to their rescue there would have been no BJP-led government. And it is well known that the TDP was the leading force in the United Front government, which was formed to keep the BJP out. So much for their mandate!

THE CLAIMED ACHIEVEMENTS

Apart from believing the 'sympathy vote' they claim exists, their grounds to go in for immediate elections is perhaps based on the false notion that they have brought appreciative change in the social and economic spheres. They certainly cannot claim to have provided a better administration or taken the country forward. When celebrating the one year of BJP rule, they cited their great "achievements", which they claimed were unparalleled. However, neither their celebration or their claims evoked any palpable confidence or enthusiasm among the people. And it did not become a significant force to run the campaign. In fact the record of the BJP rule is one of how it tried its best to reverse even the limited advance which the country had been making in various spheres. They continue to praise the Pokhran tests, which have resulted only in creating a situation of an arms race as Pakistan has not lagged behind. Except creating an atmosphere of tension what has it meant?

After the Pokhran tests our foreign minister has been attending the court of US Secretary of State Madeline Albright for months together. He says that they will obey their orders and has tried to hide the fact that an assurance with regard to signing of CTBT has been given. How much they have tried to destroy the unity of the country is well known. RSS men have been appointed as governors of states. Then the step was taken to change the educational system by imposing the RSS philosophy on it. Can they deny the fact they called the Education Ministers Conference and then brought in an industrialist instead of the Minister of Human Resources Development to present the policy document - the same paper as adopted by the RSS a few months previously? It was only the protest organised by the West Bengal Education Minister and supported by other education ministers from the states that forced them to shelve this agenda.

But this policy was not confined to this issue alone. They attempted big changes in the CSIR, the Centre for Historical Research and other important institutions where research was being conducted on a scientific manner, and appreciated by the whole country by transferring the bulk of the academicians and those in key positions and brought in RSS men in their place.

Their economic policies have only increased the hardships of the people while subserving the interest of the country to imperialism and their multi-national agents. The most recent example has been the Exim Policy announced just before the fall of the government. The first Exim policy announced last year, freed 300 items and put them under Open General Licence. In this second policy announcement, 800 more items have been taken out of the restricted or quantitative restricted categories and placed under OGL.

Similarly, the first Budget of the government tried to increase urea prices , but waas forced to take back this measure. In this year's budget a hefty increase in urea prices has been included , in addition to the hike in prices of sugar, rice , wheat and cooking gas. And lastly diesel. After increasing diesel prices in the general budget, and the increase in freight charges in the Railway Budget, the price of diesel has again been raised.

ATTACKS ON MINORITIES

The known policy of the RSS and its outfits continued to instigate trouble against the Muslim minority. Can they deny that in the past year these attacks were extended to the Christian community. Only when forced by their allies at a meeting of the coordination committee did they nominally demarcate themselves from the activities of its other sangh parivar outfits. In fact, many of the constituents of the coalition issued statements condemning these heinous acts, though the top leaders tried to cover it up by stating that these outfits have no hand in these incidents. This has created a big stir among the people belonging to the minority community and a hatred against this regime.

THE CONSTITUTION & THE BUREAUCRACY

Take another instance of violation of democratic norms, the constitution and the federal structure of the polity. They tried to dismiss the state government of Bihar by using Article 356. In the inter-state council earlier, everyone had agreed that Article 356 had to be radically modified and should not be misused to dismiss duly elected governments. It is a different matter that later on they had to refrain from forwarding the proposal to the Rajya Sabha for approval as they lacked a majority in that House, and were forced to recommend restoration of the Rabri Devi government.

The BJP did not also hesitate to raise many questions, which challenge the basic structure of the Constitution. Its top leaders advocate the presidential form of government, call for a change in the constitution for a mandatory five-year term for the prime minister.

Nor has the the bureaucracy been spared from their touch. Innumerable transfers were made in order to reward known RSS men with plum postings. Ironically it was Mohan Guruswamy, their once trusted aide who resigned and came out with startling facts and a host of allegations. They have not hesitated to remove a serving naval chief, nor to interfere in the affairs of the armed forces. No other earlier regime has tried to interfere in such a blatant manner. This not only tarnished the image of the government, but also created demoralisation among the armed forces personnel.

FOREIGN POLICY

In the realm of foreign policy, the United Front government succeeded in improving relations with all our neighbours. It is significant that during the BJP regime relations with China, which had improved to a great extent, beginning with Rajiv Gandhi's visit to Beijing in 1988, and subsequently, other governments also did their best in improving these relations, deteriorated rapidly. The visit of Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, during the tenure of the UF regime, and the signing of various agreements and especially the confidence building measures, created a new climate. By targetting China and terming it a security threat, the BJP in fact was only trying to placate US imperialism.

Whatever propaganda the BJP-RSS combine may now unleash, the people know fully well that the 13-months rule has proved that they cannot maintain the unity of the country because of the dangerous designs of their various outfits. Whatever propaganda they make now about democracy and defence of the principles is not going to cut any ice among the mass of the Indian people who by experience have found the dangers inherent in their policies. Therefore they will not be able to hoodwink the people with any slogans in the coming days.

WHY NO ALTERNATIVE GOVT.?

The question now arises why was the opposition, even after the President had rejected the claims of the BJP, not able to form an alternative government, why did it fail? While on the one hand the BJP launched a massive propaganda, on the other it made efforts and unleashed forces to work among some in the opposition to create divisions in their ranks, working on differences and opportunist tendencies. In the national interest those who were wedded to secularism and had it uppermost in their minds no problem would have been there, because while programmatic differences existed they could have united on the basis of secularism.

Our Party said that the Congress, being the second largest party in parliament, should form the government and we would support it from outside, but that such support would be issue-based. Most of the other parties had also accepted this. There was no question of alliance with the Congress. While the secular democratic parties were not a sufficiently strong force, they had also to intervene, but such intervention was not possible without the support of the Congress. Such a stand had become necessary in the present reality to ward off the communal danger, which was posing a grave threat to national unity.

It is unfortunate that the BJP manoeuvres began having an effect on certain sections of the opposition who, forgetting their earlier position, start it stressing local contradictions, which they had with the Congress party in the states. Though efforts were made to counteract this, the result was a differentiation within the forces that had voted together against the BJP on the confidence motion. The Samajwadi Party, the RSP and the Forward Bloc took a stand of not supporting the government headed by the Congress knowing fully well that this would result in allowing the BJP to come to power, or a fresh election. Instead if the Congress as the second largest party had been called, it could have mustered a majority. The Congress having committed to get the numbers, with the stand of the Samajwadi Party, the numbers could not be mustered. By this act of the Samajwadi Party a situation was created where no alternative could be formed .

Many people ask whether some other alternative was possible. As stated above, our consistent stand had been that the Congress alone, being the second largest party could form a government, and we stressed the idea that according to earlier parliamentary practice, the Congress party be given a chance first. It would not have been difficult for the Congress to muster a majority, as an overwhelming number of the MPs did not want dissolution.

After the failure of the Congress, it was up to it to suggest some other alternative. But any effort in this direction was blocked by the Congress party itself when its CWC adopted a resolution in which the very first sentence stated that the Congress party would not support any other party or combination to form a government. This adamant stand closed the door for any other option. This shows the eagerness with which the Congress is still toying with the idea that it will be able to get back to power on its own. This ignores the fact that in 1996 they offered support to a candidate nominated by the secular opposition parties. This stand of the Congress party has created further confusion in the forces of the opposition and exposed the authoritarian bent of mind of the Congress party.

From the outset we supported the claim of the Congress Party. They should not in turn have made a blanket statement that they will not support any other combination to form the government. The Congress failed to understand the significance of the unity which had emerged in the opposition forces. Nor will this attitude help the Congress in pursuing their tactical manoeuvres in the future too, because it is very clear that no party can get a majority on its own even in the next election. Even in the future if the aim is to keep the BJP out of power, we have to keep in mind that inspite of serious differences on certain issues some common approach has to be adopted. So far the Congress has not shown any repentance for this attitude which has created a further division inside the forces of the opposition.

THE TASK AHEAD

Now the Lok Sabha has been dissolved and fresh elections are going to be announced. They will have a great bearing on the future political scene in our country. The united approach forged earlier has received a setback because various forces are looking at issues from the narrow angle of local contradictions existing since many years. But they will not be able to stop the communal forces from coming to power nor be able to play a significant role in achieving this objective. unless such issues and contradictions are not be allowed to overlap the major issue facing the country today.

Our edge has to be against the dark forces of communalism, our efforts should be to warn those who have taken an equivocal position on communalism, and unite all the other parties in different states who are eager to defend the secular fabric of our society. The various political forces who worked out the tactical approach keeping in mind the major objective as well as the important element which enables us to strengthen the Left and democratic forces must be reinforced. Personal animosities and prejudices should be kept aside. The main objective must be to see that the communal forces do not come back to power.