India's political theatre has always had a flair for melodrama. But what is unfolding across the country now is no longer politics that occasionally resembles theatre. It is like theatre accidentally stumbling into politics between costume changes.

West Bengal is staging a tragicomedy in which Mamata Banerjee, after being electorally battered, appears determined to treat democracy as a mere technical inconvenience. In her script, defeat is apparently not a verdict but a misunderstanding that requires prolonged clarification. One half expects a courtroom monologue, thunder in the background and a violin score swelling, while constitutional propriety quietly jumps out of the nearest window.

Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, has decided to produce a different genre altogether. There, MK Stalin exits with the solemnity of a statesman while actor Vijay's TVK storms the stage like a political blockbuster with a first weekend collection nobody anticipated. TVK emerges as the single largest party, falls short by a handful of seats and then encounters the Governor performing interpretative constitutional dance to avoid inviting the obvious claimant to form the government.

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And somewhere in the middle of this national carnival stands the Congress party, wandering from tent to tent like a confused stage actor who has forgotten which play he was originally hired for.

In West Bengal, Rahul Gandhi spent considerable time accusing Mamata Banerjee of enabling the BJP. Fair enough, one might say, until one notices the Congress contesting nearly 270 seats despite possessing the electoral muscle of an underfed harmonium in the state. The result was not the Congress rising heroically from the ashes. The result........

© Mathrubhumi English