Oppn under attack…on all fronts

There has probably never been an election in Indian history so far where the Opposition has been targeted so much.

Just when the main Opposition party, the Congress, was complaining about vindictive politics narrating how central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate(ED) and the Income Tax department had severely depleted its financial resources and its ability to emerge as a strong political force, came another rude shock for the opposition camp with the ED this time, going after high-profile Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, one of the leading lights of the INDIA front.

The ruling BJP is no doubt perturbed over the rising eminence of the AAP considering that in the space of about ten years after its formation, the party has seized power in two pivotal states - Punjab and Delhi.

The AAP today has a presence in almost all states and has been contesting state elections in other states too though it has not met with much success.

But what has probably shaken bigwigs in the saffron camp is that along with a decline in the electoral fortunes of the Congress, the AAP has slowly but steadily been grabbing the limelight on the Opposition stage.

There are many other Opposition players — the TMC, DMK, SP and RJD - but their reach has been largely confined to a single state with efforts to spread their wings coming to naught.

And so those who had been fervently hoping for a party which can prove to be an effective counter to the BJP in the years to come, have their sights set on AAP though the Congress continues to be a decisive force.

Kejriwal’s arrest also brings up a troubling question; Does the BJP really have an intrinsic faith in popular democracy of which free and fair elections are an integral part?

Big guns of the AAP are in jail - Manish Sisodia, Kejriwal, MP Sanjay Singh among others.

Many other stalwarts of the Opposition including Rahul Gandhi, the Uddhav Sena’s Sanjay Raut, ministers of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, leaders of the CPI(M) in Kerala including its former minister Thomas Isaac— have faced the heat and the list is likely to get longer in the heady days before the Lok Sabha polls.

Journalist and media critic Walter Lippman once wrote that ‘In a democracy, the opposition is not only tolerated as constitutional, but must be maintained because it is indispensable.’

And the Mahatma himself said that ‘A democrat must be utterly selfless. He must think and dream not in terms of self or of party, but only of democracy’.

Do such profound and sagely thoughts matter at all to the ruling front as it goes about its task of achieving ‘400 sou paar,’ even as critics warn that by trying to browbeat its rivals into submission, the party is careening towards a self-made electoral disaster?

While making no secret of its intention to retain power at any cost, the ruling party has also been making undisguised attempts to topple the few governments in states ruled by the Opposition like Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.

The collective will of the Opposition has stopped them but one can’t help wondering about the fate of these state governments if the BJP comes to power once again?

There cannot be better words than those of the saffron icon and former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee himself to sum up Indian politics today; ‘In a democracy, you don’t just talk politics, but you also take into account the sentiments of the people,’’ wrote Atal years ago and one can’t help wondering what the people make of the stormy political happenings around them with just weeks left for the first phase of the Parliament polls.

The people have been watching and it’s left to the people to decide what’s in the best interests of democracy.