By Rattan Singh Gill
It is difficult to resist mocking at reprocessing of the depleted political stuff at Bangaluru that churned out to be the 8th Front of Indian politics– the INDI Alliance. However, it is equally difficult to ignore them as they occupy some political space.
Their track record has been such. The late but unlamented National Front (NF), United Front (UF) and Third Front (TH) of 1989, 1995 and 2009's vintage came into being with great pomp and fanfare but vanished without a trace. On churning further the political cauldron, one can find the main ingredients of NDA (1995) and UPA (2004) with some remains of two pre-poll Mahagathbandans (of Bihar in 2015 & of UP/Jharkhand in 2019). Unlike the current INDI Alliance, the NF, UF & TF were post-poll alliances formed.
With the bright idea of Fronts, MahaGathbandans getting floated for the ‘N'th time, the latest alliance formed this week with a formal nomenclature (I.N.D.I.A — how novel!) for the 8th time in a row in little over three decades. People are too tired to even tickle themselves into laughing over this incident. Even so, as diligent members of the public, we must record the birth of these bubbles, though none noticed when they vanish without succeeding much to keep the Congress and the BJP respectively ‘out' of power. While the BJP propped up the NF, the UF stood on Cong crutches. And both the Fronts collapsed prematurely when those backers backed off. But the Fronts, during their short-lived stints at power, turned out to be hilarious slap-stick stuff with each of those brief Front regimes packing in more than one PM! Had they lasted longer, the list of ex-PMs would have been longer too.
Though five Fronts/ Mahagathbandans died in harness, the sixth one NDA (1998) still pulling through and the other one – UPA (2004) being desperate, the idea of a Front/Morchas never dies. It thrives perennially in the minds of a host of political players: Losers looking to regain lost limelight, infant parties that have broken away from parents, prodigals waiting for a homecoming that is not yet forthcoming, PM aspirants with no party behind them, partner-less parties pitching for marriages of convenience or a one-night-stand, political orphans, political nomads, caste parties and all sorts of political wastes that get churned out in the political cauldron.
The latest INDI Alliance is keeping with all those familiar traits. Its constituents all have a solid past and a shaky future. They are neither here nor there, rotting at home as mere spectators even as their local rivals go places. The time was indeed ripe for a Front to underwrite for their political salvage.
But this latest Alliance shows some distinct features from the earlier avatars. For one, the new Front has five letters, a literal or lexical improvement over the usual two-three alphabets, though it is a bit early to say if that means some extra life or more stability. The second one this time was the Alliance leaders also did not have a photo shoot standing alongside each other and holding up their hands together, a truly revolutionary opening and closing that spared the nation an ominous sight. Again, this is the first time that existing fronts like UPA, Mahagathbandans of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and Gupkari Alliance of Kashmir have merged into a new incarnation for their sole objective of ousting the Inflation Man alias Show Man of India – Narendra Modi, their common bête noire.
Also, the name was coined to have a nationalist facade and appeal as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance where the ‘Inclusive' is an intruder in a verbose style. If the simple principle of Orthography and its consonance followed, the word Inclusive qualifies with Development and not with individuals or parties as adopted in ‘Inclusive Alliance' and the name would have emerged as I.N.I.D.A. But here again, by a morphic trick, they would show some semblance of ‘Indian nationalism' while bearing the hat of INDIA. However, their past conduct and also of the herds they lead, have never been akin to the true spirit of India.
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