NEW DELHI-Economic Policy Making and Coalition Politics

THE political strains and tensions which the minority government headed by V P Singh has to face are tending to get acute from day to day. The prime minister, on his part, puts a brave face on all that is happening even while he is applauded by his admirers for dexterity and balancing tricks in crisis management as crisis after crisis surfaces and threatens to destabilise him and his government. The policy responses and management and administrative methods that are employed tend in these conditions to be jerky, totally ad hoc and often contradictory as well as superficial. Remarkable have been the pulling out of Jagmohan from Jammu and Kashmir even while he has been nominated to Rajya Sabha and the appointment of a policeman, that too with a RAW background, to replace him and tackle the Kashmir problem with greater flexibility and imagination than shown by Jagmohair.