THE SOCIAL MESSIAHS

The next great Janata experiment-the 'third way' in Indian politics-lost its way soon enough, but not before the main protagonist, V.P. Singh, effected the Mandal revolution

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When history repeats itself, sometimes tragedy and farce are ladled out in equal proportion across its many instalments.

So it certainly seems to be the case with the great Janata experiment—the 'third way' in Indian politics that seemed most efficient at losing its way around the multiple roundabouts of Lutyens' Delhi. The shambolic trial run of 1977-80 was still fresh in everyone's mind, so the Janata Dal of the late 1980s had in front of it a first-rate manual of what not to do. Yet, the second edition went right ahead and reprinted those bloomers anyway. Within the compressed time-frame he got on the main stage of history, V.P. Singh managed to unleash a social revolution.