Saturday, May 09, 2015

British elections

The Conservatives have become the majority party on their own in the House of Commons. Like Indians, the British voters have pooh-poohed the rule "Once a coalition, always a coalition'.

David Cameron did his party proud by not allowing the erstwhile alliance partner, the LibDems, to dictate terms to him or to the Conservative party. Consequently, the Liberal Democrats could not deliver all that they promised in the 2010 elections. There is no surprise therefore that the voters rejected the Liberal Democrats. The Labour party was trounced in Scotland and hence was only a poor second to the Conservatives.

David Cameron did not trivialise politics by indulging in 'coalition dharma' a la Manmohan Singh. Cameron was not overly attached to power and hence could do what was good for the country. This year's budget was not a populist one and the prime minister did not ask his Chancellor of Exchequer to sugar-coat any of his proposals. One can expect David Cameron to handle emerging problems like retention of Scotland in Great Britain (in the light of Scottish National Party's phenomenal success in Scotland), the country's continuance in European Union etc. with similar elan.

Dhritharashtra was so enamoured of power that he did not hesitate to tolerate immoral and unethical activities by his sons and associates. Manmohan Singh, having tasted the charm of prime-ministership, was prepared to ignore any illegality perpetrated by his alliance partners and was more than willing to be a sycophant to the Gandhi family. He cared more for comfort than for honour. David Cameron followed a more desirable path.

Leaders of the Labour party and LibDems have accepted their responsibility for their defeat and have resigned. So has the leader of UKIP. They do not belong to the Gandhi family and so are not averse to owning responsibility. But there is no meaning in blaming the Gandhis when the Congress party with so many capable individuals finds nothing wrong in being led by them.

No comments: