This refers to the editorial, “Fast versus Fast” (April 12). All power-starved opposition parties are ganging up against the ruling party. BJP president Amit Shah has termed the opposition parties as “cats and dogs coming together to defeat the BJP in general and Modi in particular”. Attacks and counter-attacks in one form or the other are common in politics. But likening opposition parties to cats and dogs may not be in good taste not only because the dignity of the politicians has been belittled but also because it is not fair to compare them to cats and dogs which are faithful to their owners.
In the post-emergency era, there were only two main parties viz, the Congress and the Janata Party. Various parties had come together to form the Janata Party under the stewardship of Jayaprakash Narayan to defeat the authoritarian rule of the Congress led by Indira Gandhi. Ultimately, the Congress was voted out and the Janata Party came to power under the prime ministership of Morarji Desai. But internal feuds in the Janata Party led to a fall of Government at the Centre in about two-and-half years. All those parties that had come under one roof to form the Janata Party started disintegrating. Some leaders formed their own parties in different names like the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Janata Dal (United), the Samajwadi Party, the BJP among others. Barring the BJP, all other parties could not attain the status of national parties. To the chagrin of the Congress, it has almost lost its national status. The plight of the Congress is so bad today that it has no other go but to join hands with the regional parties for its survival since it is facing existential crisis.