An uncompromising Congress led by a suddenly combative Rahul Gandhi, and an Opposition that refused to be breached, forced the Modi government into opposition mode. As the spectre of elections in Bihar loomed large, the national capital witnessed an unusual sight this past week — senior Cabinet Ministers and BJP MPs, holding placards aloft, marching up Raisina Hill to protest against the Opposition’s disruptive tactics in Parliament.
All through the session, the BJP tried hard to isolate the Congress. But the Opposition, divided by ideology, personalities and competing ambitions, stuck together for the greater part. In one episode, after Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh said he did not favour prolonged disruption of Parliament, the government thought it had finally breached the Opposition. But a day later, finding himself cold-shouldered by other Opposition leaders, he urged his MPs to enter the Well of the House, though on the caste census issue.
Conflicting pressures on Mulayam “There are conflicting pressures on Mulayam Singh and there are cases pending against members of his family on the other hand,” non-SP sources said. “The SP is in power in Uttar Pradesh and its chief political rival in the State is the BJP. It can’t afford to be seen on the same side as the BJP, whatever its reservations about the Congress.”
With the decline of the Congress, reduced to mere 44 members in the Lok Sabha, many political parties fear the possibility of the BJP growing at their expense.
As for regional parties ruling the States, such as the Trinamool Congress, cuts in Central allocations for welfare programmes, and the dilution of their say in Central institutions – like the Planning Commission, or National Development Council – have made them wary of the Modi government.
Indeed, this wariness has seen a growing closeness in Opposition ranks. Last week, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar invited leaders of the JD(U), the RJD, the National Conference, the Trinamool and the SP to tea. All those gathered declared their support for the JD(U)-RJD-Congress combine in Bihar. The Congress was not invited, but the NCP was at pains to stress it was because it was “a meeting of regional parties.”
Earlier this year, when the BJP came a cropper in the Delhi Assembly elections, after a string of electoral triumphs in Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir last year, Opposition parties – and not just the Congress – began to feel emboldened to take on the BJP more frontally as the latter works to expand its footprint across the country.
Parliament’s Monsoon Session, therefore, saw a fair degree of opposition solidarity.
There were minor differences in approach to various issues, but most had grievances against the government. This was reflected both in the Well of the House as well as within the precincts of Parliament.
If the Congress and the Left Parties targeted the government for failing to respond to their demand for the resignations of some of its senior members charged with corruption and acts of impropriety, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi sought a separate High Court in Telangana. And the RJD, the JD-U and the SP protested against the government’s delay in releasing the countrywide caste census results.
Land Bill issue The contentious Land Acquisition Bill, of course, saw almost the entire Opposition forcing the government to go back on provisions that its members believed were pro-corporate and anti-farmer. Indeed, the BJP members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the legislation even agreed to restore clauses relating to consent and social impact assessment while dropping the idea for an industrial corridor. (Later, panel chairperson S. S. Ahluwalia postponed submission of the report to the Winter Session as the government wanted more time to think on whether this capitulation might send the wrong message to the corporates.)
Evidently, these Opposition parties believe that if the BJP-led alliance loses in Bihar, it may improve their prospects in West Bengal, Assam and Punjab in 2016, and UP in 2017. If the Trinamool has stakes in West Bengal, in Assam and Punjab it is the Congress, and in UP the SP.
