India’s Opposition is a strange beast. The parties and the leaders making up this discrepant entity—that refuses to hang together even as a loose coalition—share similar problems with the ruling NDA government and use the same language when articulating the issues of harassment, victimisation, and institutional erosions resulting from the political executive’s “overzealousness” to steer every wheel moving the establishment. Yet they cannot agree on the basic questions of confronting the challenges staring them in the face. The Opposition’s inability to arrive at a consensus on step one of firming up the modalities of collaboration and making common cause against the BJP has a farcical element, characterised not by confusion, but ennui, disinterest and the most crucial, gamesmanship.
The last is ludicrous because most players operate on small provincial turfs despite their professed national ambitions, while the only national actor, the Congress, stands on space that’s shrinking so rapidly that it might join the ranks of the regional parties. Clearly, the Opposition has punched above its weight.
On February 28, speaking at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stated: “What is happening is that the institutional framework which is required for a democracy—Parliament, free press, the judiciary—just the idea of mobilisation, just the idea of moving around … these are all getting constrained.” On March 11, Kapil Sibal, a former Congressman and now an Independent Rajya Sabha MP, voiced the same concerns more sharply at a Delhi protest square where he announced the launch of a “people’s movement for Insaaf (justice)” in the backdrop of the raids on Opposition party members, the collapse of elected governments and incidents of lynching. “The foundation of the Constitution is justice, economic, social and political,” Sibal stressed and used an interesting analogy.
He likened the Constitution to a vehicle, steered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Parliament as the first wheel, the Election Commission as the second wheel and the executive as the third one. The executive, in the BJP’s possession, was trying hard to get the judiciary in its hold, alleged Sibal. “When the driver has possession of all the wheels, then the ED (Enforcement Directorate) will say you can go anywhere. What kind of democracy is this?” he asked, reflecting the despair gripping the Opposition.
The Opposition was expected to go ballistic in the second leg of the budget session of Parliament and revive its attack on the Gautam Adani issue after the Hindenburg Report accused the Adani group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over decades, allegedly patronised and facilitated by “friendly” governments in Gujarat and at the Centre. Congress president and Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge convened a meeting on the first day of the sitting that was attended by 16 parties, including the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi for obvious reasons. Manish Sisodia, the AAP’s second-in-command, implicated in a liquor scam, is in jail while BRS leader K Kavitha is being interrogated by the ED for her alleged role in the same case.
Therefore, the AAP and the BRS, otherwise antagonistic towards the Congress, need all the support they can mobilise. Significantly, the Trinamool Congress Party was not part of the gathering despite its leaders wilting under the investigative agencies’ heat at various points.
The word from the TMC was its chairperson, Mamata Banerjee, thought the Opposition unity endeavour was “premature” and she would have to sort out issues “bilaterally” with the Congress which was on a high after defeating Mamata’s candidate in the recent Sagardighi Assembly bypoll. Similarly, the AAP was riled up when a former Congress MP, Sandeep Dikshit, and two former Delhi ministers wrote to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena to prosecute Sisodia for “sedition”. Saxena promptly asked the chief secretary to take action for “sedition” and use the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against Sisodia and the other accused for alleged “snooping and spying” by the now defunct feedback unit or FBU. The AAP accused the Congress and BJP of being in cahoots.
Different as the contexts are, the West Bengal and Delhi cases illustrate the underlying contradictions running through the Opposition. The discrepancies rise to the surface in crunch situations. For instance, the Congress sniffs a chance of reviving itself in Delhi because the AAP is in deep trouble, an unrealistic proposition considering that the Congress is bereft of local leaders and saddled with a moth-eaten organisation.
If the Congress believed that the Opposition’s ED-CBI-created travails offered hope to the party, the first days of the budget session served a harsh reality check. When the Congress sought to resurrect the Adani issue, the BJP adeptly turned the tables by playing the “nationalist” card through the medium of Rahul Gandhi’s recent UK visit and the speeches he made at various forums. The BJP’s anti-Rahul offensive was carried to such lengths by a union minister in the Rajya Sabha that the Congress served a breach of privilege notice against him.
The Congress, with some Opposition parties in tow, had prepared to corner the government over its alleged “misuse” of the central investigative agencies and demand a probe by a joint parliamentary committee into l’affaire Adani. The treasury benches, taking the cue from Prime Minister Modi’s castigation of Rahul a day before the session reconvened, took the campaign to another level. Modi alleged, “Some people are putting Indian democracy on trial and insulting the citizens of the country (on foreign soil).” The Congress tried hard to accuse Modi of “humiliating” India under the UPA regime but it wouldn’t wash to the same extent, primarily because its sally had become a solo exercise which was fully entangled with defending Rahul—something the rest of the Opposition was palpably not interested in.
The BJP’s time-tested line—that corruption was a synonym for political dynasties and inborn entitlement—covered the gamut of leaders who were in arms against the CBI and ED. The AAP was an exception but by now the BJP’s talon was deep into Sisodia. Where does the Opposition unity project begin? With alliances in states or purely on issues? Either way there are no easy answers.
Radhika Ramaseshan
Columnist and political commentator