'Coalition blues'

This is apropos a Business Recorder editorial "Coalition blues" carried by the newspaper yesterday.

The newspaper has, in my view, suggested to the government a strategy to deal with growing dissatisfaction among its coalition partners by arguing, among other things, that "Coalitions cannot be held together without flexibility on the part of the bigger partner. Keeping coalition allies on board requires the understanding that politics in Pakistan has evolved over the years into patronage in the constituencies. If the PML-Q (and MQM) are ignored vis-à-vis their complaints that they are unable to keep their constituents satisfied because of a dearth of fulfillment of the promises made to them when they joined the coalition and an attitude on the part of the federal government that does not keep in view the exigencies of patronage politics in the constituencies, trouble is bound to follow."

In this regard, I wish to cite the example of BJP-led coalition government in India. The Modi government lost one of ruling coalition's traditional partners - Shiv Sena - over the issue of chief ministership after the 2019 Maharashtra elections. In this case, BJP government failed to smooth the ruffled feathers of its coalition partner Shiv Sena, losing the rule over one of India's most prosperous states where post-election Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP alliance gave birth to a non-BJP government.