For now Dr Manmohan Singh is King although uneasy must be his head that wears the crown. Where does the nation go from this day of shameful scenes of money-waving and allegations of bribery. It stands discredited in the eyes of the nation itself?

What next? Manmohan Singh looks set to be able to get his favourite nuclear deal through. The USA has been lending support from the ring side via the words of Richard Boucher, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, who said recently that USA would deal with even a minority government to see that the deal goes through.


Now bolstered by this national and international endorsement the government can limp along till March, 2009, when the next general elections are likely to be held. So has the drama and sordid bargaining of the last few weeks been worth it? If this nuclear deal goes through we might get all the benefits that are supposed to come our way with this agreement, but what about the national polity? Doesn’t it stand discredited in the eyes of the nation itself?

Can any kind of deal justify the completely unashamed bargaining and wrangling that the withdrawal of the Left parties set into motion? The smaller, regional parties and the independent members of parliament clung to their cards till the very last in order to get coveted positions of power (Shibu Soren and company), pet but controversial projects through (DMK got the nod yesterday, July 21, for the Sethu Samudram project) and many other untold gains.


Personally, I wanted to see the nuclear deal go through and was upset with the Left for its belligerent (but consistent) stand, but now seeing these goodies being handed out to some of the most corrupt and opportunistic politicians, I am not sure whether the nation has gained anything at all. The whole world now knows about some of the greedy men and women who masquerade as our politicians.


Although the Left set all this in motion, the Congress and other parties are equally to blame for the murkiness that has followed since. This has also ruined any interest I had in a possible Third Front, as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP. Now with seasoned politicians like Chandrababu Naidu and Karat hitching their wagons to Mayawati’s juggernaut I am not sure I like this alternative.


For over a decade and a half Uttar Pradesh and its politics based on the myopic and selfish agendas of various castes, minorities and criminals has been at the forefront of the lowering of political standards in our country. This is something that is not often said openly for reasons of political correctness (or opportunism), but it would be further damaging for our country if this kind of politics spreads to the entire nation


And what about the dramatic allegations of match-fixing made by some BJP members today on the floor of the House? What will it take to banish the images of bundles of notes being waved around in the Parliament itself? Earlier, the national media was making a lot of the fact that it is the foreign media that is playing up the stories of horse trading. What do they have to say now? It is a TV channel that is said to have staged this sting operation in collusion with the BJP members. Who is guilty of hyperbole and who is hiding the facts? Can the public trust anything they see and hear in the media now?


Disturbing as this all has been, it is more depressing to know that this is not the last time we will have seen such horse trading. Public memories are short and we will have the same lot of politicians staging similar dramas going ahead too. It happened in1994, in 1999 and is now happening again in 2008.


With regional parties chomping their way into the vote pie of the two main parties, coalition politics is here to stay. And in true Indian manner it won’t be coalitions of strength that weave regions into a national matrix. If the past is any indicator then it will be coalitions of petty and narrow interests that will debilitate the functioning of any national government. And in this manner we shall hobble on till the next political crisis envelops our nation.