Games politicians play: Is Durga Nagpal a victim of coalition politics?

Let’s set aside the Durga Shakti Nagpal episode for a moment. We know the shock and anger expressed by players across the political spectrum to her suspension is only a charade. Nobody is an angel exactly when it comes to handling bureaucrats. All parties kick around honest, upright officers when in power. They cultivate a bunch of pliable, loyal ones in all organs of the government to promote their own agenda. All of them construe a ‘no’ from an officer as an insult. And Durga is placed too low in the bureaucratic hierarchy to be of serious concern to anyone.

Empty posturing is by now everyday behaviour with our politicians. Let’s go beyond that. The Samajwadi Party has proved a point. It can do whatever it wants with the Indian Administrative Service officers in the state cadre. And the UPA at the Centre cannot act tough with the state government. It needs the support of the party to get important bills passed, and more crucially, to survive in power. It would be stupid on the part of the Congress, which heads the ruling coalition, to stretch things beyond a point. Any party in its position would play safe.

Durga Shakti Nagpal with villagers and policemen during the demolition. This photo was taken by a resident of Kadalpur village.

That should be a big worry for the minders of the democracy. Coalition politics over the last two decades has been marked by steady erosion of the authority of the Centre. With big parties falling well short of a clear victory, they are exposed to blackmailing and the arm-twisting tactic from the regional parties. The latter, entrenched well in the states, have no particular stake in the smooth running of the government at the Centre. Also, they have the electoral compulsion to keep their own vote banks in good humour. When the interests of their vote banks are in conflict with the decisions of the government at the Centre, they would dump the latter without a qualm. Bring into the mix prime ministerial ambitions, secret agendas and personality issues, it’s really a complicated scene out there.

A government fighting for survival would be risk-averse and it would have the natural tendency to be populist. It would conduct hush hush negotiations, make unholy compromises and land poor political decisions. And it would fail to defend good officers. Boldness equals foolishness when you are not perennially doubt where the 20-odd members to prop the government would come from. The problem with our political commentariat is they still perceive central governments as a one-party government, with no external hassles. The UPA’s experience over the last four would suggest that its biggest achievement has been to survive in power. That would be the fate of all future coalitions.

However, the point here is not whether the UPA government is an achiever or not, the issue really is whether unstable governments would be in a position to deliver the goods and be in a position to stand up to the limited agenda or follies of regional parties. By all indications, the NDA, if it manages form the government, would be a shaky coalition. Would the BJP-led front be in a position to handle unreasonable demands or actions taken by the state governments, say the AIADMK-led one in Tamil Nadu easily? How would it react to an issue akin to the Durga Nagpal one?

Frankly, we have no answers. The Indian democracy has entered a phase that promises to be unstable. Bold, aggressive leaders are no solution to the problem; canny manipulators perhaps are. Political parties, especially the bigger ones like the Congress and the BJP, seem to have no answer either. In the absence of that they would indulge in the game of empty posturing and purposeless grandstanding. Durga Nagpals of the world would continue to be pawns in bigger political games.

The charade would go on.