As low farce goes, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton re-tying the knot after a messy divorce can’t match the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha emerging from a marital blow-up only three months ago to fall back into an unprepossessing clinch. For the two legendary stars of the silver screen, it was only a question of giving their wrought emotions another chance. The issue didn’t concern morality or public trust. On the other hand, the BJP and JMM duo are playing ducks and drakes with the mandate of the people. Both are defeated parties. The JMM had crashed out of power in the last Assembly election in November-December 2009. In that electoral contest, the strength of the BJP had been nearly halved. Yet they had gone ahead to form a coalition government with the aid of smaller entities in January this year only to break up a few months later, necessitating President’s Rule in June. And lo and behold, they are back in the saddle yet again. The difference this time round is that the chief minister will be Arjun Munda, from the BJP, and Jharkhand’s power-hungry JMM leader Shibu Soren’s son Hemant has agreed to be one of the two deputy chief ministers, showing he has inherited his father’s gene for power-hunger. There is nothing in the dynamics of the politically blighted state to suggest that the BJP-JMM dispensation will be any better at rendering stability to one of India’s poorest states than the previous JMM-BJP dispensation. It is widely believed that the BJP’s recently appointed president Nitin Gadkari — whose singular lack of experience in the conduct of high politics is the subject of talk within BJP circles — has been working overtime behind the scenes to bring about the fly-by-night denouement. Of all places, the man chose Moscow from where to press the button.
How long the latest edition of the Jharkhand pantomime will last is anybody’s guess. But even devotees of political opportunism will find it difficult to wager that the BJP-JMM-AJSU (a minor Jharkhand political group) can offer the state even routine, sensible, administration. If experience is any guide, the stress of the members of the new government is likely to be on economic and political aggrandisement. Other considerations, especially those to do with development and cleaning up the Augean stables of corruption, will take a back seat. The choice of Mr Munda as chief minister was probably the BJP’s best bet once the party chose to throw political ethics to the wind. The incoming leader of the Assembly has some reputation for dynamism. But the leader of a government born in sin will find he has no choice but to look the other way when ministers and legislators of the ruling alliance place a premium on turning rules on the head with a view to making hay while the sun shines.
In the eight years that Jharkhand has been a state after the bifurcation of Bihar, it has seen seven governments, which looks to be something of a record. This unseemly spectacle can hardly fill the people of the state with confidence that public welfare will be at the centre of things. With hindsight, it may be argued that the Assembly should not have been kept in suspended animation when Central Rule was imposed in June this year. In order to stabilise the administration, go after the crooked politicians, and deal with both force and sensitivity in tackling the menace of Naxalism which is devouring the state, a reasonable spell of President’s Rule may have offered the most exigent choice, leading on to fresh elections.