The Opposition has taken the first decisive step this week to put up a combined barricade to stop the mighty Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) juggernaut of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his march towards a third successive term to lead the country. The fact that, till recently, the dormant Congress rejuvenated by its impressive rout of the BJP in the Karnataka assembly polls has got together with 25 other parties, quite a few of them formidable at a regional level, is a significant move on India’s political chess board with national elections less than a year away. Despite the quibbling among the Opposition leaders over the name of the newly formed united front, INDIA, there seems to be a genuine determination, or more correctly, palpable fear among the overwhelming majority of parties about the current regime’s agenda to put them out of business if it wins again.
Significantly, the mood in the Opposition camp at Bengaluru this week appeared quite different to the euphoria and gloating on display five years ago in the Karnataka capital, when the Opposition had gathered to celebrate the formation of the Congress and Janata Dal (secular) coalition government based on a clever but devious coup, toppling the short-lived BJP government after the state polls. As a matter of fact, both the Congress and other Opposition parties had more reason to celebrate the Karnataka poll results this time that left the BJP trounced rather than tricked out of power. But there was little evidence of hugging and joining hands with the Opposition leaders focusing on the nuts and bolts of putting an Opposition alliance together rather than indulging in rhetorical flourish.
The Opposition seems to have learnt a bitter lesson from its dismal failure to stop crumbling in a heap in the runup to the 2019 parliamentary polls as the fizz soon went out of the political grandstanding in Bengaluru. Without a tactical plan or strategic vision, the Congress along with other Opposition parties, speaking in different voices, were sitting ducks when the prime minister chose to use the Pulwama terrorist attack and the subsequent air strike against Pakistan to mow them down ruthlessly and sweep the Lok Sabha polls. Seemingly far more aware of their own vulnerability and the Machiavellian cunning of the political goliath they face, Opposition parties have now realised that it would require far more coordination, cooperation and if necessary, temporary self-sacrifice if they are to hold the line against their opponent.
The Congress, which has always been prone to delusions of grandeur and thus the main stumbling block to Opposition unity, is beginning to show far more political pragmatism. The decision to keep Rahul Gandhi away from a senior perch in the newly formed front and instead send his mother Sonia, a far more acceptable figure among other Opposition leaders, and let her and Nitish Kumar, a political veteran and the key facilitator of the new united front, be its public faces makes a lot of sense. So has the Congress’s olive branch to AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, in the shape of an unequivocal condemnation of the recent Central government ordinance defying a Supreme Court order to take away the elected Delhi government’s hold over the local bureaucracy, despite strident objections from local Congress units in Delhi and Punjab where the party is locked in bitter rivalry with the AAP.
Kejriwal and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, two leaders who have earlier created obstacles in the path of Opposition unity, also seem to have reconciled to falling in line with a concerted effort to not let bickering between different individual political rivalries help the BJP to romp home to victory. Other regional satraps are clearly more amenable to move towards a political change at the Centre and consequently a more federal approach by New Delhi than at the moment. The second term of the prime minister appears to have convinced the bulk of regional parties that it was essential to make temporary compromises even with local rivals rather than run the risk of an all-powerful central regime reducing state governments to be either complete puppets or destabilised.
However, it remains to be seen whether, as the elections approach and the daunting task of seat distribution among different parties within the new INDIA front, will show the necessary spirit of accommodation. It may well be impossible for the Opposition to put up a combined opponent against the BJP and its rag-tag allies in every constituency given the vast complexity of the Indian electoral scenario. But as long as most of the Opposition has a broad understanding within its ranks playing to its own strengths from region to region and exploiting local weaknesses of the BJP, there appears to be potential to dent the invincibility and aura around the prime minister.
The writer is a Delhi-based political commentator. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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