NEW DELHI: The day was marked by quite a few out-of-the-ordinary press conferences, from Chennai to Lucknow. But the one at New Delhi caught the attention as much, because of who attended it, who did not and what was alleged. But more than what was said at the Constitution Club on - after the Congress initiated opposition meet - what was left unsaid and the noted absentees on the stage, held significance.
Obviously called in an attempt to recalibrate the 16-party Opposition unity forged in Parliament, it was a far cry from it. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi found himself on a truncated platform where he shared space with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and six other parties.
Prominently not present were JD-U, the Left Paries (CPI and CPI-M), NCP, BSP and SP. Despite invites going out from the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and the pleading phone calls from Mamata Banerjee, these party leaders chose to skip the meet and the presser that followed. DMK, RJD, JD-S, JMM, IUML and AIUDF made the numbers mostly through there representatives. Former PM Deve Gowda was himself present.
The sullenness of the atmospherics in the Opposition camp, compared to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Dehradun extravaganza was all too stark. The spark was simply missing from the opposition meet. Nonetheless, they, Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee in particular, asked a few hard questions of the Prime Minister and his demonetisation drive. As the much-hyped presser got under way, Rahul got overwhelmed by Mamata’s insistence and demanded a resignation from Modi.
That is, if the economy did not restore within the time limit spelled out by the government. The Opposition was pretty sure that the economy will not be out of the woods nor the current crisis would be over, by Dec 31 deadline.
So, ‘’if he does not resign by himself, the people will throw him out’’, Mamata thundered. Prior to that Rahul said, the way the Prime Minister has been shifting goal posts - from the initial resolve of fighting black money to going cashless - he would find “some excuse’’ to shift the deadline as well.