INDIA can’t afford chinks in the Oppn armour

For democrats and secularists in the country, there could not be a more worrisome piece of news than the ‘discordant voices’ emerging from the INDIA coalition of Opposition parties. In fact, they were a delighted lot when the electorate clipped the wings of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the May, 2024 parliament elections substantially reducing its numbers. The trend was shifting, many hoped after the decade- long rule of the NDA which saw many opposition leaders being sent behind bars and central agencies being ‘used’ against those who dared to raise their voices against attempts to stifle democracy. There were disappointments of course with the Opposition losing Haryana and Maharashtra to the BJP and its allies, even while holding on to Jharkhand where attempts to ‘cut CM Hemant Soren to size’ miserably failed.

But what has really emerged as a cause for concern among adherents of the Opposition front is the not so veiled questioning of the leadership of the Congress party. These voices have come from the Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which have been in the forefront of anti-BJP politics in the past several years. These parties seem to be egged on by the fact that the Congress is yet to provide the kind of inspirational leadership which could have led to poll victories. But it is not just a poll victory which matters on the national political scene, something leaders of these parties are acutely aware of.

The Congress is the only party in the Opposition space which commands a pan-India presence, with the other outfits restricted to their respective state or a couple of states. While the AAP can claim some support in Haryana and other north Indian states other than Delhi and Punjab, the same cannot be said of the RJD, SP or TMC which are deeply entrenched in their home states of Bihar, UP and Bengal. Growing out of the regional mould to become truly national is something which takes time, planning and effort and so when there is a chorus to make West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee the leader of the INDIA bloc, one can’t help wondering about the sagacity of such a move and whether it is more driven by fierce loyalties than rational thinking. The Congress may be down in many states, but it is not out at all. In fact if there is one party which commands fairly substantial support from Kerala and Karnataka in the south to Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in the North and from Assam in the east to Rajasthan in the west, it is the Congress.

Even the BJP cannot claim the support the Congress has across every stretch of India. Mamata may have emerged as an unbeatable icon in Bengal but after having been deeply involved in state politics for so long, one really doubts if she can take on political heavyweights like PM Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah on the national scene. One also can’t help wondering if Mamata has the time to spare for national politics, which will require her continuous presence in Delhi more than Kolkata. Countering the Modi-Shah combine will therefore only happen through a collective effort when Opposition leaders speak in one voice and that is what is most needed in these challenging times.

INDIA should maybe leave the question of who should lead the front for the future, for parliament elections are a long time away. For now, Opposition leaders should consider knitting together a collective leadership and maybe form a presidium of top leaders who could sit together and come up with alternatives to policy formulations of the NDA. That would prove to be an effective counter to the BJP and NDA and a reminder to them that poll victories alone do not mean they can wish away the opposition and impose their policies at will on the country