He stands there, maintaining `equidistance' from desperate suitors, but always closer to the camera and, unreportedly, his conscience. The most sought after Chandrababu Naidu can afford to stand serene despite an overplay of seduction. It's a freedom he has achieved by good governance and grassroots politics. This freedom allows him to play the part of federal big daddy, to make a choice that can be a stable factor in a fractured polity.So Naidu believes that his solitary celebration of `equidistance' need not be a visceral `BJP hatao', that his secularism doesn't need an approval from the biggest losers of this election. He has so far refused to subordinate his victory and his party's destiny to the politics of negativism. As politicians who have lost India chant `a BJP-led government in India is end of India', Naidu maintains a legitimate let-me-be-myself. Can you, Naidu? Et tu, Naidu? It's secularism, beloved Naidu! Be united, unique Naidu... Today, Naidu's freedom is being assaulted by a set ofsuitors the UF suitors who have only the freedom to parade their redundancy in the limited market of secularism. The most harassed Chandrababu Naidu: an object fancied by the Frontiersmen of power-without-mandate.
Such sweet words of endearments are being poured on him unity, integrity, anti-communalism, and, of course, secularism. Perhaps, this is the political equivalent of brain transplant. And the most active brain in this electorally illegitimate secular operation is an ancient one that seeks to rule India by conning India's verdict. Being the Big Brother of the UF, the CPI(M) the General Secretary of which was the first one to stake the claim to form a secular government is more than playing its historical role as the manipulator of the mandate. It is manipulating the mind of a politician who, unlike his educator, is rooted in reality. He wants to use his freedom with responsibility, with his own political future in mind. The indoctrinator wants to appropriate Naidu's freedom for wrecking themandate.
See how an young (actually babe by Marxian standards) apparatchik is today talking about a Third Force (kill the BJP government, kill the Congress government and why not? a UF non-government), as if his politbureaucracy has a life outside the television screen.
This show is hardly secular, this pseudo-show of Redeem India staged by leaders who have been defeated by India. The CPI(M) can afford to indulge in the art of deception, for its electoral strength is independent of the fortunes of a fragile idea like the UF. The Marxists want to be national. The partners may wither away but the Marxists have their safe mofussils in three states. They badly need Naidu, they want to play with his hard-won freedom. The Marxists have nothing to lose, but Naidu has plenty, including his own party. The good news is that the secularly harassed Naidu continues to defy indoctrination. It is stability despite seduction.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
