Political Diary
New Delhi, 26 May
2020
Opposition
Void
ANTI-BJP DÉJÀ VU
By
Poonam I Kaushish
Phew! Eight weeks in
to the lockdown yet there is no respite from the tu-tu-mein-mein vitriol between the Government and Opposition which
continues to get shriller and more odious. Modi has let the country into an
economic disaster, yells the Opposition, nonsense, his popularity has gone up,
counters the BJP. Bringing to mind Frank Kafka’s adage: One idiot is one idiot. Two
idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political Party!
Undeniably, the idea
that Modi is Teflon-coated, migrant travails are idle chatter of a defeated and
fatigued Opposition and nothing can bring him down might be bunkum for the bhakts. But worse is that the Opposition
looks more like a bunch of stricken Covid 19 patients than like determined
champions of the democratic mandate to hold the Government to account.
In fact, it is the
Opposition’s failure to seize the opportunity or its unwilling to confront and
corner the Government on substantive issues of migrant livelihoods and economic
mishandling to demand accountability which has ensured that Modi retains his macho
numero uno protector image of saving tens
of thousands of lives, notwithstanding, IMF predicting that unemployment has
already spiked to 26% with 18 crore people losing their jobs in the first few
weeks of the lockdown.
Strangely,
for reasons best known to it, the Opposition’s politics has largely been in suspended
animation, while the BJP has happily been exploiting opportunities provided by
the pandemic into even-larger political capital. Despite, the same
possibilities being present for the Opposition to put the Government on the
mat.
Lest the Modi persona
devours it, the Congress interim prima donna Sonia called an 22 Opposition Parties
meet Friday, which included Mamata’s TMC, Pawar’s NCP, Stalin’s DMK , Left and latest
entrant Thackeray’s Shiv Sena. Others, regional outfits like Samajwadi and BSP have
abandoned their turf. Alas, it ended in a whimper with a joint call to dub
Cyclone Amphan a national calamity and help Bengal and Odisha on its road to
recovery. Nothing more nothing less.
Clearly, the Opposition
faces a catch-22 situation. Suspension of politics during the pandemic lockdown
seems to be a secure strategy. But this approach gives Modi an even longer rope
to skirt accountability. Because of the apparently hegemonic force of the BJP’s
narrative, any Opposition to it runs the risk of being looked at as unabashed
opportunistic and even ‘anti-national’.
Paradoxically,
Covid 19 gives the moribund Opposition a unique opportunity to resurrect
itself, but it is too timorous to claim it. Primarily, because of the disarray
within the Congress, the largest Opposition Party.
Crippled
by rank desertions, indiscipline, perennial squabbling among senior leaders
resulting in a virtual free-for-all with big, small and petty leaders all
pulling in different directions who at best can come up with tokenism and
“me-tooism”. The older entrenched leaders refuse to let go and the Rahul
brigade orphaned and dumped by their leader it is staring at an abyss.
Not
a few senior leaders are worried that politics could spin out of control in the
next three months. Privately they count how many more such acts may be in the
pipeline at a time when the Party is caught in a whirlpool of political and
electoral crises and is confronted with a firmly entrenched BJP topped with
“Brand Modi.’
Slowly
but surely the Congress finds itself in an existential battle and faces
multiple challenges: With Sonia seen as an aging stop-gap President, Rahul as a
‘reluctant leader’ who lacks the reliable and dependable quotient alongside his
sister Priyanka who carries the albatross of her Vadra surname. In fact,
Congressmen are quietly questioning Sonia’s intentions and policy of
protecting-her-son-at-all-cost.
Indeed,
the Party has become a prisoner of the highly personalised, feudal functioning
and outlook. In such a Congress system
the entire pyramid fastens leech-like feeds on the “undaata”, living off her goodwill. Only those who serve loyalty
flourish in the “nomination culture”. Said a disgusted neta, “The decision-making process is so slow. If Soniaji continues
with her status quo policy then the Party will fall apart.”
The
most unpleasant aspect is the withering of internal democracy. It has made the
Party hopelessly dependent on initiative from the Congress President and
tragically immobile in its absence. What is more, Congressmen keep scoring
debating points against each other and turning every issue into a dissident
versus loyalist question. Of sycophants who are as loyal as Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita!
Bringing
things to such a pass that it has became increasingly difficult to decipher who
are the heroes and who the villains. Resulting in a blame game between the
veterans and Rahul’s “rudderless coterie with each blaming the other for
inertia, ghooskhori and lack of grassroot desi connect to counter NaMo’s
Hindutva symbolism and nationalistic zeal.
Its recent lumbering
attempts at criticism couched as ‘constructive advice’ come across as meek and
innocuous suggestions, rather than potent political questioning. Two cases in
point. The fracas with UP’s Yogi Government over 500 buses meant to ferry migrant
labourers back from Rajasthan which displayed wrong number plates, registration
papers of bikes and three-wheelers instead of buses etc. Two, even as it’s
heart melts for migrants, it took Rahul 53 days to do one photo-op with them!
Importantly,
the Congress needs to find answers to why it has become so weak and what should
be the mantra to re-charge the Party apparatus? Notwithstanding, Sonia pitching
for waging a “long and forceful war to recover ground.” Certainly, the diagnose
of the problem is correct but the Party cannot come up with convincing answers
to galvanize its cadres.
Specially,
against the backdrop of the Party’s shrinking vote nation-wide and the need to
expand its organization and social base in the States ruled by allies or
Opposition Parties. An instance, in the run-up to the Delhi polls the battle had
narrowed down to between BJP and AAP with the Grand Dame non-existent!
Either which way, it
is crucial the Congress takes this risk now or it and other Parties imperil
further marginalisation. Urban and rural poor who are worst hit by the economic
cost of Covid present a constituency on a platter which the Opposition can
directly address. Ditto the case with unemployed and laid-off workers.
Cynical as this might
sound it could pave the road to put the Opposition on the right political track
to underscore its importance among these voters by emerging as the voice of the
poor and the marginalised.
Undoubtedly, the
impact of the lockdown may make social issues more prominent again in terms of
class, at the expense of caste as well as religious identities and communal
tendencies. Consequently, the Opposition has to remain proactive through the
current situation.
In the ultimate, the
Opposition has to read the writing on the wall. There is no democracy without
accountability. And when the aam aadmi
is struggling for his survival, it is the Opposition’s inherent duty to demand
political answerability. If not for the poor, then at least to secure its own
political futures. For if it abdicates this, it would not only be inimical to
its own political interests but also spell its collective doom.
Its déjà vu times of the 70”s, what was
anti-Congressism then is anti-BJPism now. The Opposition needs a lesson in
political ABC, aggression, bounce and confidence. Is it capable of turning a
new leaf? It would do well to remember a Talmud saying: Power buries those who wield it. Politics is
a heartless and unforgiving mistress. ----- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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