So the summary for the ouster of the PPP ministers from the Punjab cabinet has been sent to the governor. Many a naysayer would predict that this is going to be a hiccup. After all, some of the more emotional jiyalas have been saying that they will contest the move in the courts, specially with reference to the laws against party defection applying to the Q League members. Insider reports, however, reveal that nothing of the sort is going to happen.
True, the PPP has made no bones about the fact obviously that it thinks the PML(N) has erred, specially at such a crucial stage in the development of our nascent democracy. But it has also made it clear that it will be content sitting on the opposition benches in the Punjab Assembly. Though the cynics would attribute this policy to a lack of alternatives, it is sort of line with the PPPs stated policy of consensus and reconciliation. For the third straight year, the ruling party has embarked on a path of least resistance, something the N League is going to find tough to emulate if it comes into power.
Though the polity could have done without the PML(N)s impetuousness, it is hoped that the various political players could move beyond this episode and wait out the rest of the governments tenure without any other adventurism. Though deal-making and tweaking the numbers of rival parliamentary bodies is all politics, the rather precarious evolution of our democracy doesnt give us much of the leeway that political parties in other countries can take for granted. The usual villains are waiting in the shadows, waiting to pounce on the squabbles of the political class. Nowhere should this mean to imply that there shouldnt be a vigilant, responsive and above all, irritating opposition. But a respect for the mandate of the political parties, like the PML(Q) whose legislators were swooped up by the bigger League recently, should never be violated.
