Shadow-Boxing

Shadow-Boxing THERE are perhaps new compulsions in the political establishment that have precipitated the overnight and somewhat dramatic transition from relative placidity to turbulence. Contrived politics and illusory opposition ensured that a minority government not only did not have to try very hard to survive but also was able to undertake fundamental policy changes, all the while bypassing a very lenient parliament. The BJP pronounced the end of anti-Congressism, renounced adversarial politics and bailed out the government on the few occasions that the need arose. And under the burden of administrative responsibility the BJP took to pretending that Ayodhya and the Rath Yatra had never happened.