The members the newly energised Janata Parivar, who met in New Delhi on Thursday, plan to “make it difficult” for the Narendra Modi government in the upcoming winter session of Parliament, especially in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA is in a minority.
The key issues they will flag is the attempt by the Centre to “dilute” the previous UPA administration’s flagship programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, and water down the Land Acquisition Act, even as they will oppose the introduction of 49 per cent FDI in insurance and labour reforms.
Janata Dal (United) leader K.C. Tyagi, providing these details, said, they intend to speak to other like-minded parties on these issues so that they can “unite and oppose” the government on the floor of Parliament. In the Lok Sabha, the NDA has an overwhelming majority — so the focus will be on the Upper House.
The Janata Parivar parties — the Samajwadi Party, the JD(U), the Janata Dal (Secular), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Indian National Lok Dal and the Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) — will hold their next meeting ahead of the winter session of Parliament that commences on November 24, 2014 to finalise the details of a joint strategy. “The date will be fixed by Mulayam Singh Yadav (at whose home the meeting was held on Thursday),” Mr. Tyagi said.
If the strategy in Parliament will be to focus on the “anti-poor” mindset of the Modi government, these parties also plan to hit the streets. The issues that will be taken there will focus on the failure of the BJP to honour the commitments made in its manifesto and in the speeches of its leaders — the unfulfilled promise of bringing back black money, providing jobs for the youth, as well as giving farmers a price that would factor in the production price and add 50 per cent to it. The Janata Parivar’s top leaders are likely to hold a demonstration on these issues outside Parliament.
Apart from the core group parties that met in New Delhi on Thursday, who are hoping to merge soon, the next step will be to talk to Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal, that is still in the UPA, and the Biju Janata Dal. BJD chief and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s father Biju Patnaik, was one of the leading lights of the original Janata Dal.
The parties of the Janata Parivar feel that they also need to either goad the Congress and the Left parties to join forces, or fill the vacuum being created by them.
The Janata experiment: From The Hindu archives
November 6, 2014
>Janata Parivar meets, merger on the cards
A merger of parties belonging to the “Janata Parivar” appears to be on the cards following a meeting between them at Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh’s residence.
October 21, 2014
>Janata Parivar losing its touch with Mandal politics
Finishes way behind in Haryana as the BJP outplays it in social engineering
October 2, 2014
>Signs of Janata Parivar taking shape
Though not a Third Front yet, there are signs that the Janata Parivar — and some of its old friends — shaken out of its lethargy by this year’s general election results, is tentatively working towards creating an anti-BJP platform.
August 21, 2010
>JD(S) all set to lure back Janata Parivar members
February 6, 2007
>Gowda blamed for breaking Janata Parivar
President of the Karnataka unit of the Janata Dal (U) B. Somashekar said that Janata Dal (S) president H.D. Deve Gowda, who was primarily responsible for the division of the Janata Parivar has no moral right to talk about uniting the Janata Parivar once again.
January 29, 2007
>JD(S) to work for unification of Janata Parivar: Deve Gowda
“I am willing to shed my ego, if any, and even step down from the presidentship of the party... ”
May 6, 2006
>Sharad Yadav vows to unite Janata Parivar
President of the Janata Dal (United) and former Union Minister Sharad Yadav said that he would make efforts to unite splinter groups of the Janata Dal, including the Janata Dal (Secular) headed by H.D. Deve Gowda.
April 14, 2004
>CPI(M) accuses Congress, BJP of keeping Janata Parivar divided
February 25, 2004
>Janata Parivar will come together: Swamy
Janata Party president, Subramanian Swamy, said that the decision of the All-India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD) to contest the elections on the JP symbol was the beginning of the coming together of the Janata Parivar to "revive the spirit of 1977 once again."
July 4, 2003
>JD(S), JD(U) agree to merge ‘unconditionally’
In a significant political development in Hassan, the leaders of the Janata Dal (Secular) and the JD (United) agreed to merge their parties at the Karnataka level.
January 4, 2003
>Pawar optimistic on merger of Janata Dal factions
The President of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sharad Pawar, has said that the consolidation of a third front was the need of the hour in the light of the poll outcome in Gujarat and the Congress's outlook in the recent elections.
December 1, 2001
>Efforts on to unite Janata ‘parivar’
Efforts to reunite various factions of the Janata Parivar — the Samata Party, the Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Janshakti — aligned with the National Democratic Alliance, have been intensified with an eye on the elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
January 8, 2001
>Janata parivar: Another split
The Samata Party, yet another splinter group that emerged out of the grand alliance of non-Congress forces — the Janata experiment — has split once again.
