The Opposition should not just behave like a government in waiting, but also play a restraining role in the latter’s functioning as well as draw up its own comprehensive governance plan
A fully functioning democracy, by its very nature, requires constructive participation from the Opposition.
It’s also a form of leadership just as crucial for serving the citizens as is ministrations in a governing coalition. A faltering and divided Opposition is just as harmful for the people as it is for the personal fortunes of the politicians.
Question then is, why is the Opposition such an abject failure in this country? If it was responsible and effective, the TINA factor that got translated at the voting booth into a NOTA vote would not have been so prominent.
Broadly speaking, the Opposition lacks an original agenda. It is mostly reactive at the national level. A strong shadow cabinet should not just behave like a government in waiting but also play a restraining role in the government’s functioning as well as draw up its own comprehensive plan for the country.
It is here the role of the Congress is mostly circumspect. Rahul Gandhi rightly spoke about the Congress being the only party which could take on the BJP’s policies at the national level. He felt the regional Opposition was not in a position to do so.
But the Congress has steadily lost ground. It is now confined to two states: Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It has steadily lost a string of capable leaders due to internal political attrition. Those leaders include Himanta Biswa Sarma, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh, among others.
Sarma opened the floodgates for the BJP in the North East despite being mentored by the Congress and the deceased Tarun Gogoi. He won Assam for the BJP, castigated Rahul for being aloof, elusive and disinterested. His hurt showed more than anything else.
Jyotiraditya Scindia sank Madhya Pradesh for the Congress. He was one of the closest to Rahul. He secured a good deal for himself in the Central cabinet while his camp of over 20 MLAs were well looked after. Rajasthan would have been lost too if certain compelling circumstances had not restrained Sachin Pilot. But make no mistake. He is a chief minister in waiting.
The Congress is plagued by lack of cadre strength, lack of funding and lack of skill or strategy to counter the BJP election machinery juggernaut. Rahul himself has made mistakes like attacking Narendra Modi on the Rafale deal with the “Chowkidar chor hai” comment. It was ill-timed. Only the foolish would attack Modi on charges of personal corruption.
Rahul lost ground immediately as the narrative changed. Voters didn’t believe him or maybe didn’t even want to believe him. Even his attacks on the China policy were immature. The problem has festered for a long time. The solution partly lies in delicate diplomatic gamesmanship and not just spewing jingoistic venom.
Not just the Congress alone, even coalition politics is failing. The prime example is the Maharashtra crisis. The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has been unable to keep the numbers together. The prime irony being how the Shiv Sena has begun to unravel.
During political contests too, the BJP has thwarted coalition alliances in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka quite successfully.
On another front, Opposition efforts to effectively contest the presidential polls have seemingly backfired. While an aggressive Mamata Banerjee dreamt of another “Khela Hobe” (Game On) campaign in Delhi, backed by Sharad Pawar, their move lost steam the moment Naveen Patnaik (Odisha chief minister) and YS Jaganmohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh chief minister) backed out. It is they who had the decisive numbers in Parliament as well as their state.
Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal has 12 members in the Lok Sabha, nine in the Rajya Sabha and 114 in the 147-member Odisha Assembly. Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRCP has 22 Lok Sabha seats, nine in the Rajya Sabha and 151 out of 175 in the Andhra Assembly.
In terms of electoral college votes, the NDA needs another 13,000 to see its nominee through, which means support from either BJD (31,686 votes) or YSRCP (43,450) will be enough. And both have pledged their support to BJP-NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu.
The BJP-led NDA had already worked on Patnaik and Reddy to enlist their support. So, the Opposition-led camp first proposed Sharad Pawar’s name as the presidential candidate. He said no. Then it was Gopal Krishna Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah. Both refused. They knew the Opposition never had the numbers.
In the end, they could only rustle up a name like Yashwant Sinha, who is known more for his political bitterness after his forced estrangement from the BJP.
***
Also Read
Presidential polls: Who will forge Opposition unity is the main question
Explained: How Opposition’s efforts to find candidate for Presidential polls have been unsuccessful
Opposition picks Yashwant Sinha as presidential candidate: A look at life and career of octogenarian, fierce Modi critic
***
The point to remember is regional satraps (in non-BJP ruled states) like Mamata Banerjee, Stalin, Naveen Patnaik, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal, and K Chandrashekhar Rao nurture their own political ambitions. They mostly aspire to do a Modi by taking the prime minister’s chair after a successful stint at the state level. None of them would be willing to back the other for the prime minister’s chair in the 2024 general election battle.
This is where their problems begin.
Modi made the transition from Gujarat to Delhi backed by a powerful, well-oiled political machinery fuelled by the BJP and ideologically managed by the RSS. None of the current regional satraps have that advantage. Perhaps, the only exception would be the Congress, no matter how lame that exception is.
There was a time when the Opposition was capable and brave enough to lead campaigns against Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, the Mandal phase and the Mandir movement. Now, that push comes from the civil society in the form of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, the farmers’ agitation, et al.
What is happening instead is that irate chief ministers, stemming from political frustration, have begun showing disrespect to the chair of the prime minister, which should not be happening in a mature federal polity like India. Quite a few instances have come up of chief ministers not receiving the prime minister at the airport in their states. This is a clear breach of federal protocol.
KCR did not show up in Telangana; Mamata Banerjee refused to attend a meeting chaired by the prime minister in Bengal; former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi did not receive the prime minister at the Bathinda airport and that was followed by the Punjab fiasco where the Modi’s cavalcade was stuck en route to a public meeting.
Flashback to the past. There was a time when two political gladiators like PV Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee would lock horns in the Lok Sabha. Their debates were legendary. Neither would concede an inch. Yet there was mutual respect. I have also heard Vajpayee speaking on Nehru’s policies so eloquently.
Large parts of that equation, in the present, have degenerated into rancour, anger and frustration.
Narendra Modi has been chipping away at dynastic politics. He says that this blocks young aspiring leaders climbing the ladder on merit. He cited his own instance, and that of President Ramnath Kovind and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
French political scientist Jean Blondel has contended that “Opposition is a ‘dependent’ concept. In other words, the character of the Opposition is tied to the character of the government. Yet, the recognition that there is a dependence of Opposition on government does not mean that variations in types and forms of opposition should not be looked at.”
The fragmented Opposition needs to introspect on exactly this aspect.
The author is CEO of nnis. Views expressed are personal.
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.