NEW DELHI: Congress leader
Shashi Tharoor
believes that
opposition parties
, regardless of their current campaigning strategies, will unite after the Lok Sabha polls to form an
INDIA bloc
coalition government. He asserted that the people will have a Prime Minister who listens to others and is first among equals.
Tharoor in an interview to PTI included the Trinamool Congress in his argument, stating that a coalition government is nothing to fear.
He pointed out that the Indian economy has performed better under coalition governments than under single-party rule.
The Congress leader also defended his party’s decision to skip the ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, calling it a political platform for the glorification of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
. “Given Mr Modi’s style, the personality cult built around him, and the way the BJP has been ruling, I think it is fair to say that it (an INDIA bloc government) would be very unlike what we have seen in the last 10 years,” he said.
According to Tharoor, a coalition government functions differently from a monolithic one-party government. He is confident that an INDIA bloc government would be unlike what has been seen in the last 10 years under Modi’s rule. The former Union minister highlights the positive record and experience of the Indian public with coalition governments.
“If you have a coalition government of the INDIA bloc, you are going to see, for the first time in a long while, a PM who is first among equals, who has to listen to others, take their point of view into account and who would have to be a good manager,” he said.
“Mr (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee is considered in many ways an excellent example of that kind of consensus builder. He did not have a majority, far from it… he had 26 parties in his coalition but his government was able to deliver effective results and at the same time reassure Indians that they had a functioning government,” Tharoor said.
Addressing the contradictions within the INDIA bloc, such as the bitter exchanges between the Congress and the Left in Kerala, Tharoor pointed out that coalitions often come together after the elections. He believes that on June 4, when the results are declared, all parties, including the Trinamool Congress, will unite to prevent the BJP from coming to power. Tharoor concludes by stating that the “hubristic narrative” before the first phase is over, and people are unlikely to hear claims of “abki baar 400 paar” for some time to come.
