IT is not often that the single largest Opposition party fights shy of pulling down a ruling government, even when opportunity strikes. The Congress, headed by Sonia Gandhi, seems to be plagued by fear of toppling the BJP government though the other Opposition formations, like the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal, are only too keen to ambush Vajpayee and Co. Every one of their moves have stopped at 10, Janpath. For, the Congress president, for reasons which even senior party leaders fail to articulate, has given the go-ahead to "expose" the BJP but has stopped short, at least for now, of lending the Congress hand to destabilise the government.
No wonder then that the predominant view among the UF constituents is, as Janata Dal MP Ram Vilas Paswan puts it, "the government will last as long as Sonia Gandhi wants it to." Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh also feels that the onus for the formation and continuance of the government now rests solely on the Congress: "If Sonia Gandhi makes up her mind, I...
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