If success is its own justification, Mr Manmohan Singh's Government has everything to claim for itself. But neither the past sins nor the future uncertainties will enable the UPA Government to spend its remaining seven months in peace.

It is easy to claim that in war and politics there are no constraints of ethics. History, however, is replete with instances of powerful leaders paying for their sins. Recall Rajiv Gandhi's famous victory and the Congress's two-thirds majority. To ensure that that the majority does not melt away, he had an anti-defection law rushed through. Yet, despite the two-thirds majority he had to dissolve Parliament before its term ended and seek a fresh mandate. He failed to get a fresh mandate as the shadow of the Bofors scandal hovered over him with disastrous consequences.

Mr Singh's Government will have sleepless nights with the ghosts of July 22 returning to haunt them much like Banquo's ghost in Macbeth. How the majority was cobbled up he might be able to hide from the public. It's not difficult to guess why a score-odd Opposition members switched sides in Parliament and voted for the Government.

Obviously a last minute discovery of merits of the nuclear deal by the defectors was not the sole motivating factor for their change of heart. The dirty tricks department of the Congress was active. A part of the assignment was out-sourced to a new found ally of the Government. The synergy between SP and Congress yielded the desired results. Some of those who know too much could be a nuisance and will soon ask for their pound of flesh. In the underworld of politics, the fate of men who know too much is often not very different from what happens to such people in the real underworld. Then the nemesis begins.

The Prime Minister may be preening himself too early in claiming that he is now freed from enslavement to the Left. At least in making that claim on the floor of the House he has admitted that the organisational structure of the UPA in the last four years and more had a built-in failure core. Does not this confession on his part at the fag end of his term reveal that the BJP charge, that he has been the weakest Prime Minister ever, is an understatement? Mr Singh was not a 'weak' Prime Minister, he was just a 'slave' for over four years in office. We all knew that he was remote-controlled by 10 Janpath. Now we know that he was a 'slave' as well.

The problem is that in the coming days too he is bound to be a prisoner of the arrangement he has entered into to get rid of one set of tormentors by letting in another set. This Parliament has a record of sorts -- of too many one-man parties that have a price any Government would hesitate to pay. But now all of them are in the ruling alliance or supporters of it. Any day they could individually or collectively freeze the Government in its tracks. For Mr Singh, life after July 22 will be no more than a return to the past with one set of actors replacing another.

Many months ago BJP leader LK Advani had suggested to the Congress that as the two national parties, the two should seek to limit the disconnect that the regional players and one-man shows can inflict on the parliamentary system. Many in Mr Singh's party dismissed the suggestion. They are bound to discover soon enough the wisdom of Mr Advani's observation.

It looks although that some other ghosts are also coming home to roost. Mr Singh observed last year that his Government is not a one-issue Government, speaking about the then abandonment of the nuclear deal after the Left warned him. He has got rid of the Left. But is it not going to be a one-issue Government once again? Even before the trust vote's implications have begun to sink in, he has readied teams to go to NSG to get that group to endorse his deal with US President George W Bush. High on the success of his undemocratic strategy to win the trust vote, he seems to be all set to get the deal signed, sealed and delivered.

Even if he succeeds, that is not going to end any of his problems. Inflation, slowing down of growth, FIIs withdrawing investments made in India and the rest of the stuff that call into question his economic strategy and the effectiveness of him and his Cabinet colleagues will remain unattended. In fact, these problems might explode in his face as the other party to the deal and the corporate interests behind it demand concessions after concessions.

The Prime Minister ought to be aware that the compulsion to demonstrate the so-called benefits of his deal would only further drag him into the orbit of influence of these forces. Once that happens, the Opposition will have every reason to remind the country about its warnings on the deal.

Nor is the July 22 success going to change the power equations within the Congress because this party is bound to one family and any Congressman who outgrows his shoes is bound to be cut to size by the family sooner than later. This is the historic tradition in the Congress. After all, the Prime Minister could succeed only because the party stood by him solidly, unlike earlier occasions when Mr Singh was forced to eat humble pie and backtrack.

The Left, too, should learn its lesson from what happened. The issues that divided Parliament on July 22 were not related to so-called communalism but solid economic and political problems. The Left found itself on the same side of the divide with the BJP. So many in the Left publicly said they would not like to be seen in the company of the BJP. But the world knew what they were saying privately -- that the Left was committing a blunder by breaking with the UPA Government.

Mr Prakash Karat, the general secretary of the CPI(M), tried to bloster the Left's spirits by joining hands with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. But who does not know that Ms Mayawati swung againt the Congress only after failing to get a breather from the CBI which is vigorously pursuing the disproportionate assets case against her?

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, July 25, 2008