| That,
as it happened, lay ready in the shape of the temple-mosque dispute.
Advani got into the chariot - a jeep shaped into the kind of chariot
ancient Indian warriors are thought to have used. The popular
response surpassed the wildest expectations of the BJP and allied
organizations. Cornered by V.P.Singh's Mandal move and buoyed up
with the popular response to the rath yatra, the BJP withdrew
support and brought down the government.
Here again we are faced with one of
those buts and ifs of history. For we can only speculate on
what the outcome of the election, rendered unavoidable by the fall
of the government in November 1989, would have been it the ruling
Janata Dal had not spilt and the breakaway faction allowed, with the
support of the Congress, to form a new government with Chandra
Shekhar as prime minister. But as events developed, three more or
less evenly balanced formations entered the electoral arena in March
1991 - the Congress, the BJP and National-Front- Left combine, with
the Janata Dal as the principle component of the National Front in
north India and regional parties in south India. Two of them have
come out badly mauled - the Congress and the National Front.
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