With Oppn splintered, BJP may run away with mandate

About fifteen months from now, India, the world’s largest democracy, will vote for a new parliament and the obvious question on most people’s minds is whether there is going to be a tectonic political shift in New Delhi or will the status quo continue.

On Thursday, a prominent news channel telecast the findings of a survey on the prevalent mood in the nation and going by the indications emerging from this exercise, the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre continues to hold sway with no formidable challenge taking shape despite a series of mishandling of sensitive issues and misfires during its eight-year rule. The survey claims that 67 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the performance of the Central government and felt the handling of the Covid pandemic was its most commendable achievement.

But all is not hunky-dory on the economic front with the survey painting a grim picture on unemployment and price rise saying these are spheres where the government has failed to secure the confidence of the nation. They remain the biggest failures of the government and offer the opposition parties a mega plank to push the NDA into a corner when the polls are here. With fears of a recession looming and price rise putting most essentials out of the reach of the poor, the situation is unlikely to undergo a sea change in the crucial one year ahead of the polls giving the opposition some hope of stopping the BJP.

This also gives rise to a prime question-is the Indian opposition in any better state than it was four years ago when the NDA swept the 2019 parliament elections gaining 300 plus seats and reducing most national parties to double digits? There have been perfunctory efforts to build up alliances at the national level to take on the Modi-Shah combinelike the most recent exercise by Telangana CM KCR to get anti-BJP parties join hands.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has been drumming on the need for opposition unity but that also brings up the question of whether there can be an effective anti-BJP front without the Congress being the main constituent of any such alliance. The emerging scenario at the national level points to the fact that a splintered opposition will be in no position to fight and beat the BJP. What is crucially needed is a carefully planned effort to forge unity among different regional parties which have staved off the challenge from the BJP in their respective terrain so far and also ensure that national opposition parties are on board sans any hiccups.

There are enough issues to bind the opposition together besides price rise and unemployment; there are attempts to muzzle the media and also clip the independence of the judiciary besides impose restrictions on creative freedom which should strike a chord in any freedom loving citizen. Such efforts for opposition unity will succeed only if there is a broad-based agreement on national issues and also a willingness to shed egos for the sake of the common cause but there is no indication of this happening so far.

A democratic system functions best when there is a strong enough opposition to take on the ruling party and sadly, because of its depleted numbers in parliament, the opposition has hardly been able to pose any kind of threat to the ruling alliance. In the absence of a powerful icon to take on the ModiShah combine, the prospects look pretty bleak for the opposition for now. Unless of course a powerful alliance of regional and national parties happens in time before the general elections.