L.K. Advani's Blog

The recent article by Shri L.K. Advani has created a lot of buzz in the media. The whole article can be found here. 

My personal opinion is that Shri L.K. Advani is a much respected leader not only in BJP but throughout the political arena and him making a comment on the current political scenario is bound to create some buzz. He has made some very pertinent points in his article. Some of them are:

1.      The shape which national polity has acquired in the past two and a half decades makes it practically impossible for any government to be formed in New Delhi which does not have the support either of the Congress or of the BJP.  A third Front Government, therefore, can be ruled out.

2.      A non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister heading a government supported by one of these two principal parties is however feasible. This has happened in the past also.

3.      But, as the Prime Ministership of Ch. Charan Singh, Chandrashekharji, Deve Gowdaji and Inder Kumar ji Gujral (all supported by Congress) as also of Vishwanath Pratap Singhji (supported by BJP) have shown, such governments have never lasted long.

4.      There has been stability at the Centre only when the Government has had either a Congress or a BJP Prime Minister. Unfortunately, the two Governments since 2004, U.P.A I and U.P.A II have both been so badly mismanaged that the current state of anxiety in the ruling establishment is quite understandable. 

I personally feel that Congress and BJP have huge national presence and because of which it would be impossible to form a government which does not have either of the two parties present in the coalition. 

A non-BJP/Congress Prime Minister is also feasible but at this juncture, it will not be appropriate to say that such governments cannot last long. Only time and the circumstances prevailing at that point of time can decide it.

It is true that there has been stability at the centre only when the government has had either a Congress or a BJP Prime Minister. But, this analogy cannot be drawn for the future. There are a lot of non-Congress and non-BJP leaders who show a lot of promise today. A good example is that of Nitish Kumar who has presented an excellent Development Model in Bihar.