Events
& Issues
New Delhi, 8 April 2023
Rahul’s Disqualification
CONG MUST’NT MISREAD OPP SUPPORT
By Sagarneel Sinha
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from
the Lok Sabha has almost all the Opposition parties, including Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, voicing their support to him. For the grand old
party, Rahul’s disqualification is a “murder of democracy”, although the fact
remains the indictment by the Surat Court over his speech from 2019, followed the
procedures laid down by the Supreme Court in its judgement of 2013, which was
then supported by Rahul Gandhi himself. Mustn’t.
Nevertheless, Congress wants to propagate that Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and the BJP are “scared of Rahul Gandhi”. Elections to the Lok
Sabha are only a year away and the Congress doesn’t want to let go of such a
crucial issue that brings the focus back on Rahul Gandhi. However, here lies the
problem. While Congress wants to keep the focus on Rahul Vs Modi, the
Opposition parties have trouble with it. They are merely supporting Rahul on
the issue only to portray themselves as being against the BJP and nothing more.
Opposition leaders such as Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee,
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who heads the Bharat Rashtra
Samithi, and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal (United) too are
said to be eyeing the Prime Minister’s post just like Rahul Gandhi, though he
may deny it. In addition to this, Mamata, Nitish and Rao are far senior to
Rahul and would have their own hesitations working under his leadership, if at
all.
Just days ahead of Rahul’s disqualification, Mamata herself
had said, as reported in the media, that “Rahul Gandhi is PM Modi’s biggest
TRP”. Her statement came at a time when the ruling BJP was stalling the proceedings
of Parliament over Rahul’s comments attacking the state of Indian democracy
during his visit to the United Kingdom. She was not wrong. It’s not only
unusual but simply not done that the Treasury benches stall Parliament.
However, this was done by the saffron party to hit out at Rahul, who had made
waves during his Bharat Jodo yatra as well as break ranks in the Opposition,
trying to forge a united front against Modi in the upcoming 2024 polls.
The grand old party must understand that the politics
of the country has gone through a complete change. It is no longer a strong
force as it used to be. Even in States like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh-- where its
ruling in some and in others remains the main opponent to the BJP, there is a
big question mark on how the Congress will fare in the 2024 battle. In the last
2019 General elections, the BJP almost swept these States and in Gujarat, AAP
emerged as a force by mostly eating into the Congress base as was seen in the State
Assembly polls in December last year.
On the other hand, in States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, the grand old party has
been reduced to a minor force. In Tamil Nadu, the Congress is completely
dependent on its ally DMK to even win a single seat. In Maharashtra, although
Congress is a force to reckon with, it doesn’t have the strength to challenge
the BJP on its own alone. It is dependent on its allies Shiv Sena (UBT) of
former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress
Party.
Given the situation of Congress, parties like AAP and
TMC are trying to fill the vacuum created by it. In Delhi, which is AAP’s
stronghold, the rise of Kejriwal has been at the cost of the Congress, which
failed to win a single seat in the past two Assembly polls. The contest is
largely bipolar between AAP and BJP. In Punjab, AAP came to power by defeating
the incumbent Congress government. The case of Gujarat is already mentioned above.
If Congress continues to sleep, it is likely to even
lose the space of main Opposition in Gujarat in the near future. Nationally,
AAP can be a part of the Opposition, but on the ground it has to fight against
Congress too. It was this contradiction that prevented the grand old party from
lending its voice of support to AAP when its then Education Minister and Deputy
Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested.
Although West Bengal based TMC isn’t yet successful in
spreading its wings outside its stronghold, its attempts in Goa, Assam, Tripura
and Meghalaya were executed by poaching top leaders of Congress. In the Goa
polls last year, TMC ate into the vote share of the grand old party. Same
happened in Meghalaya Assembly elections held early this year where Congress
didn’t perform well as a major portion of its votes went to the TMC’s kitty.
More than that, Congress is an opponent of TMC in West Bengal
and its leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Chowdhury, also State unit’s President,
is known to be a staunch critic of Mamata Banerjee. His statements oft reiterating
that TMC is a B-team of BJP, have not gone well with the senior leadership of
TMC. Besides, after the loss of Sagardighi bypoll seat to Left supported
Congress candidate Byron Bishas, the TMC has been forced to go into introspection
mode. Although Mamata has tried to give a signal of being soft towards Congress
after Rahul’s disqualification, much would depend on the latter. If it
maintains its partnership with CPM, TMC’s arch rival in the State, then the TMC’s
current malleability towards the party isn’t going to last long.
Just look at the recent developments in Maharashtra,
where the Opposition alliance of Maha Vikas Aghadi, in a position to challenge
the BJP-led NDA, has developed fissures between Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress
over Rahul’s immature statement over freedom fighter Veer Savarkar. In Bihar,
the JD(U) initially maintained a distance on Rahul’s disqualification issue but
later joined the Opposition chorus. The message wasn’t lost and JD(U) silently
reminded Congress to keep in mind the ground reality of Indian politics, that
there’s a world beyond Rahul Gandhi. Kerala’s ruling party CPM, which has been
an ally of Congress in almost every state, also maintained a distance as in the
southern state the Left and Congress are sworn enemies. Samajwadi party, which
also came in support of Rahul Gandhi, is not keen to strike an alliance with
the Congress after realising its blunder to ally with the latter in the 2017
Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
However, if one listens to the speeches of Congress
leaders, it seems that the party’s focus is mainly on Rahul Gandhi, who is
favoured by the ruling BJP but not by the other Opposition parties. Let’s not
forget that the Bharat Jodo Yatra was less about Congress but was more
about strengthening Rahul’s image as the main Opposition face. If Congress is
serious about challenging the Modi-led BJP juggernaut next year, then it must
regularly engage with the other Opposition parties, instead of taking their
support granted. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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