A Question of Answers: 'Samata Party will not split... it will disintegrate'

All the allies of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the unwieldy National Demo-cratic Alliance (NDA) coalition government happen to be small parties. When the NDA assumed office for a second term in 1999, their small numbers mattered to the BJP because it was so crucial for forming the government. After four years in office, however, it seems that the small parties in the NDA are fading into insignificance.

The Samata, which is one of the major parties despite its small numbers, has three members in the Union Cabinet – Defence Minister George Fernandes, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar and Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay Singh.

The party, almost exclusively based in Bihar, has also developed inner fissures. In the past few weeks, there has been a behind-the-scenes struggle for power between the two big leaders in the party – George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar. They have made peace but Fernandes' followers are upset, with the Samata's spokesman Shambhu Shrivastav joining the Congress last week.

Shrivastav is no heavy-weight politician, and his exit may not mean much to Samata. But he was the face and the voice of the party, one of its most articulate members. There are not many in the party who can argue the party's stance with as much logical clarity as Shrivastav.

In an interview with Gulf News, Shrivastav recalled his reasons for joining the Samata Party after he left the Communist Party of India (CPI), his admiration for George Fernandes which ended in disillusionment, and the role he sees for himself in the Congress.

A qualified doctor of medicine, Shrivastav straddles the middle ground of commitment to the poor and openness to the market economy.

Excerpts from the interview:

Why and when did you leave the Communist Party of India (CPI)?
Through the late 1970s and the 1980s I could sense very clearly the collapse of communism. In Moscow in the 1970s you needed a permit to buy a typewriter. And in East Berlin in the 1980s, people were watching television programmes from West Berlin. I left the party after 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed.

The CPI was closer to the Congress in its thinking. Why didn't you join the Congress then?
I had read the writings of the socialist leader, Ram Manohar Lohia, and I found that he was closer to understanding the Indian reality, especially the caste phenomenon. There was also the personal factor. Nitish Kumar and I have known each other since we were 15 years old. We lived in the same hostel. He went off to do engineering, and I studied medicine.

Though he had joined the socialists and I went to the communists, we remained friends. It was he who persuaded me to join the Samata Party in 1994, and he took me to George Fernandes. And I must concede that I admired the spartan life-style of Fernandes. It took me quite a long time to see the chinks in his political armour.

Are you the victim of the George Fernandes-Nitish Kumar turf battle?
I am not. And it is also wrong to think that there is a division between Fernandes and Nitish. It is true that Fernandes needs the help of Nitish to win his parliament seat from Nalanda in Bihar, which is dominated by the Kurmi caste, and Nitish belongs to that caste. At the same time, Nitish needs Fernandes at the centre, so that he is able to be the minister of an important porfolio. There may be a bit of turf battle between the two, but they need each other.

What is the reason for your exit from Samata Party?
When the Samata Party joined the NDA in 1996, Fernandes argued that it was necessary to recognise the political fact that the BJP is the single largest party in parliament, and it will not do to treat it as an untouchable.

He also said by helping the BJP to form the government would also make the right-wing Hindu party sober, and the militants in the party would be marginalised. Over the last five years I have found that the BJP's fanatic fringe continued to play an important role, and that it was the Samata Party which was getting marginalised, and even saffronised. Both Fernandes and Nitish are anxious to remain on the right side of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang (RSS), and more specifically on the right side of BJP's hard-line leader and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani.

So, there will be no split in the Samata Party?
The Samata will not split. It will disintegrate.

How will you manage in the Congress Party, where there is a tradition of court culture, and you will have to declare your loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family?
I have joined the Congress Party because I see it as a national party with a wide base among the people. As to the loyalty factor, let me tell you that twice a year the Bihar unit of the Samata Party passes a resolution expressing confidence in the leadership of Nitish Kumar. How can such people criticise the Congress.

And it is a fact that it is Sonia Gandhi who is holding the Congress Party together. Otherwise, it would split many times and disintegrate.

What is the role you want to play in the party?
I am not looking to any position of power. So I am not competing with other leaders in the party. As I belong to Bihar, I have decided to work for the party in the state.