Janata Party-To the Manner Born

Janata party has acquired fully all the attributes of a ruling party. Virtually every state ruled by a Janata government is now riven by dissensions, and even in West Bengal, where the party has no prospect at all of coming to power through a popular vote in the foreseeable future, the party is deeply divided. And at the Centre, senior leaders of the party continue to speak in a variety of voices. But to say, as George Fernandes does in the course of his long 'note' to the party National executive, that the Janata has not "shown the will to hold itself together and function as the ruling party" is to miss the essence of what constitutes a ruling party in Indian politics. The model has been created by the thirty- year history of the Congress party in office; Janata is simply following that model.