India, Jan. 15 -- "Whom would you vote?" A friend asked me, "A mazboot sarkar or a majboor sarkar?

Frankly speaking, this is not an easy answer. In democracy neither absolute '

' is good nor an extremely

. The former tends to be autocratic and the latter tends to be anarchic.

Indira Gandhi's government in 1971 was nearly autocratic because it had power not only at the Centre but also in most of the states. In 1975 it enforced emergency. On the other hand the extreme '

have been seen in previous coalition eras particularly during Charan Singh, VP Singh, Devegowda, Gujral and even Chandrashekhar governments. Absolute chaos was there when every coalition partners wanted their pound of flesh. Even influential politicians of the leading par...