Back in India after bouquets from the British government and brickbats from a substantial section of the media in that country for purported misdeeds, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to re-focus on the domestic scene and pick up the threads from an ignominious defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections.
As the Winter Session of Parliament approaches (it begins on November 26), there are challenges galore both for the treasury bench and the Opposition. There are lessons to be learnt quickly and decisively with a degree of humility and a measure of equanimity.
The BJP cannot afford to remain cocooned in complacency any more with its crushing defeat in Bihar. No longer can the drubbing it got in the Delhi Assembly elections be looked upon as a mere aberration. It would be foolhardy to write off a Modi-led BJP in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019. But, virtually for the first time, there are questions being raised about whether Modi will and can manage to carry the party on his shoulders in 2019 as he did in 2014.
More than the BJP’s humiliating defeat, the decisive mandate to the JD(U)-RJD combine has opened up prospects of a grand alliance of parties at the Centre to fight the BJP. That may seem a tall order given the bloated egos of Opposition leaders, many of whom are vying for the prime ministerial chair, but the buzz is that if two sworn enemies—Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad—could forge an understanding out of political expediency, why can’t they and some others not do so on a common minimum programme at the Centre to keep the BJP at bay? It may well be a ragtag coalition if it does come about, but the consequences would unfold at a later date.
The immediate litmus test is the ensuing Parliament session. The BJP may gnash its teeth at the likes of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Nitish, Lalu and Mamata Banerjee’s cronies in New Delhi and the Left leaders, among others. But they would have to learn to do business with at least some of them.
It would be interesting to see how Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati respond to Congress overtures on Opposition unity. Mulayam harbours ambitions of donning the prime ministerial mantle and would not allow Rahul to walk away with the prospect of occupying the coveted ‘gaddi’. Nitish, too, may have a problem with cooperating with a Congress led by Rahul. The Congress heir apparent has his own ambitions.
In the circumstances, Modi continues to be the best bet but he can ill-afford to make too many blunders. Apart from trying to win new friends and mending fences with existing allies, he will have to rein in the motormouths in his party like Giriraj Kishore, Sakshi Maharaj and Yogi Adityanath.
At the same time, he will have to speed up economic reforms in conformity with promises made to trade and industry in India and to investors abroad. In the immediate term, the BJP must find the numbers in the Rajya Sabha to pass the crucial Goods and Services Tax Bill. If the Congress and other Opposition parties do not cooperate, it would be incumbent upon the BJP and its government to effectively expose the parties that are playing with national interest. As for the Opposition, it is time they stopped boycotts of Parliament and started contributing to debates to put the government on the mat.
k.kamlendra@gmail.com
Kanwar is a former journalist