Another Third Front in India

INDIA’S electoral politics entered a new phase on Thursday, when a group of disparate — some would say desperate — parties got together at Tumkur, a non-descript city near Bangalore, and announced the revival of the Third Front.

As crucial general elections draw nearer – the five-phase, month-long voting process begins on April 16 – most political parties are experimenting with different permutations, hoping to cobble together a workable alliance that could provide effective governance at the end of the massive exercise.

Attempts at forming a Third Front in Indian politics have always attracted derision from many quarters, especially the media. Critics have dismissed the very concept of such a front, comprising smaller entities that prefer to stay out of the two major alliances formed by the national parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, as nebulous and unrealistic.

India’s experiments with Third Front governments have been rather dismal in the past. The National Front, with the late Vishwanath Pratap Singh as the prime minister, lasted only two years. Two other short-lived governments followed the fractured verdict of 1996, when H D Deve Gowda was the prime minister of the United Front for a brief period from June 1996. Gowda, who took the initiative this time around, was followed by Inder Kumar Gujral, whose government also fell within a year.

In a vibrant and large democracy like India – about 715 million voters are entitled to vote in this year’s general elections – there is always room for a third, or even a fourth, front representing interests that are different from the mainstream. Drawing room conversation in urban India often veers round to the so-called ideal of a two-party system, prevalent in the US and the UK, but in a socially and culturally diverse nation, with unfulfilled regional aspirations, it would be unrealistic to impose restrictions on the formation of new parties or fronts.

The problem, however, with groups like the Third Front is that they generally attract frustrated politicians, whose sole objective is to occupy the prime ministerial seat – or even a cushy ministerial cabin – for a few days. Politicians and parties with vastly different agendas, even contrasting ideologies, band together under such an umbrella to grab power, thereby making a mockery of the people’s verdict. The Third Front in its latest avatar got a boost following the parting of ways between the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa; however, the refusal of Naveen Patnaik, the Orissa chief minister, to join hands with it has come as a rude reality check. Similarly, the growing bitterness between the two Communist parties – the CPM and the CPI – comes as a forewarning for opportunistic seekers of power.

The Congress-led UPA and the BJP’s NDA have a lot of soul-searching to do, as most of the constituents of the Third Front were in either of the two camps in the past. In the fast-changing, pre-election scenario, there is every possibility that discontented junior partners in the present groupings might just walk away to the Third Front, resulting in further fragmentation of the polity. As big brothers in their respective alliances, the Congress and the BJP will have to be far more accommodating and show respect to their juniors.