Competitive Privileges

THE possibility of at least a reasonable regulation of the political process that the limiting circumstances of a coalitional arrangement seemed to promise has receded now that old devices have regained currency. The original deficiencies of the relevant regulatory provisions have been compounded by the general misuse they have been repeatedly subjected to by the holders of constitutional office. There has been no deviation from tradition in the sordid drama enacted in UP and at the centre and, if anything, alarming precedents have been introduced by the moralising pretenders to office at the centre that surpass even the worst excesses of the Congress era.