| Marriages of convenience are never easy. The distressed BJP
is quickly realising this as the imperious Jayalalitha hounds it relentlessly. And so we
are back to a political cover story again as India's new Government lurches into a new
crisis, barely four weeks after its baptism by the fires of coalition. There is a sense of
deja vu here, as we watch a paralysed Government struggling to hang on to its majority --
and its morals. At the centre of the political whirlpool is Jayalalitha, a woman who
barely conceals the fact that her personal agenda -- becoming chief minister of Tamil Nadu
again and squashing the corruption cases against her -- is her sole reason for being a
part of the BJP-led Government. Our story examines how far the aiadmk's beloved leader
will go in squeezing the Government. There is much about this story that is entertaining,
much that is serious. The entertainment is in the bizarre drama playing itself out. But
behind it all is the deadly serious issue of India's political future. How far will a
party that promised India a stable government go in placating Jayalalitha? No one can
fully answer that question, but we do analyse the compulsions that drive the brinkmanship
of both Jayalalitha and the BJP. Meanwhile,
murky politics is the farthest thing on the minds of a desperate people. After India Today
exposed starvation-driven suicides in Bundelkhand, a startled Uttar Pradesh Government
sent in a fact-finding team. Following a preliminary tour, which incredibly didn't cover
the most wretched areas, the Government announced an inquiry committee. This is the kind
of government behaviour which probably let Bundelkhand slide to its pathetic state in the
first place. A government that survives by brinkmanship will never know of life, and
death, on the brink.
(Aroon Purie) |
