This refers to the report, “6 men give birth to Janata Parivar” (April 16) and the editorial, “United they hope to stand” (April 17). Though it would be politically expedient to say that the six parties have merged their identities to form an all-India political outfit which would be a replica of the Janata Party of 1977 and the Janata Dal of 1989, neither of the two previous experiments was a collection of family-owned political enterprises, like the proposed new party.
Four of the six parties are caste-based, regional outfits. Therefore, the new-born political body, notwithstanding its claim of fighting the ‘communal and corporate-friendly BJP’, would be a confederacy of family-owned and caste-driven political venture, formed to perpetuate dynastic rule as well. They have come together to defeat the BJP at the hustings, and that is their only goal. They have no programme for the welfare of the people at large.