NEW DELHI-Big Stick for Labour

NEW DELHI Big Stick for Labour B M A CHARACTERISTIC of the functioning of the present government of Indira Gandhi is a preference for avoiding a clear definition of its policy positions on any issue. This preference is most sharply expressed by the fashionable slogan that the ruling political authority has no use for ideology: it likes to go by pragmatic considerations and wants to yet things done. What things it wants to get done and how it will get them done arc matters which are left unstated. Understandably so, for if they were clearly stated, its ideology would then be revealed. This manner of functioning and doing things is in marked contrast to the brief interregnum of the Janata rule when the ruling factions were constantly engaged not only in factional squabbles but were all the time also debating policy preferences and commitments. This did create a lot of confusion and uncertainty and the charge of nonperformance found ready acceptance in the popular mind. By contrast there is doubt about the cohesive and monolithic nature of the present ruling establishment, at least on surface. But nobody can affirm with any assurance what the monolith is upto.