Congress a bad loser

Congress is a bad loser
HUBLI, January 27, 2006
The Congress is a bad loser. This is the one inescapable conclusion which comes to mind after witnessing the charade of farce of a session of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in Bangalore today.
The session had been convened specially to enable the Chief Minister Mr. Dharam Singh to seek the vote of confidence as per the direction of the Governor. But still the Congress avoided moving the motion under one or the other pretext.
By afternoon, it was known that efforts made or entices offered to Janata Dal to continue with the present coalition had failed. That Mr. Devegowda was behind the move made by his son was also evident from the failure of the party to issue a whip to the members on the confidence motion, while Kumaraswamy had come out with a whip to the members to vote against the confidence motion. Mr. Devegowda had in a letter to Antony suggested that Mr. Dharam Singh be better quit.
The fate of the present coalition had been sealed the moment the Speaker announced the recognition of Mr. Kumaraswamy as the Leader of the JDS group. It is known that the Speaker is a JDS nominee and that he would not have done without the knowledge and concurrence of the party supreme Mr. Devegowda.
The propriety of the Speakers action apart, the things should have been clear to the Congress, which had mounted the fire fighting operations at the eleventh hour that the game had been lost. Mr. Dharam Singh ought to have met the Governor and submitted the resignation and honourably quit. It is not clear whatever Mr. Dharam Singh wants to achieve by buying the time and postponing the inevitable. Even if the Congress is prepared to sacrifice Mr. Dharam Singh and offer the Chief Minister’s post, Mr. Kumaraswamy or Mr. Devegowda is not in a position to accept. The mutual suspicion, the antipathy has become so pronounced that there is hardly any meeting of the mind.
But that did not happen. Dharam Singh persisted, questioned the ruling of the Speaker and complained about him to the Speaker, which is something unprecedented for any leader of the house to do. And the delaying tactics were evident from the word go. Perhaps, those souls whose death had been condoled by the assembly must have squirmed in their graves for the concern oozing out of the members.
Another trouble with the Congress is that it is still not prepared to take cognisnace of the fact that the coalition era has begun and that its hegemony is over. The Congress can ill afford to behave as a big brother and expect the coalition parties to kowtow the party. It must learn to live with reality and work with the partner. Should change its mental framework. This is also a lesson for the Congress at the Centre, where it often forgets that it is running a coalition government.
(ends) 27.01.06