Bickerings take INDIA to the brink

Bickerings within the INDIA bloc know no end. The Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is virtually out of the bloc and will be facing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on its own. It is paying the Indian National Congress (INC) in the same coin it received during the elections for the Haryana Assembly. Mamata Banerjee will have nothing to do with the INC till it severs its alliance with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). Though the National Conference’s (NC) is still a part of it, the vibes from Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah are not positive.

However, his father and chief of the party Farooq Abdullah still sounds reconciliatory. He has urged the bloc to hold a meeting and come clear on its agenda. The Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) chief Tejashwi Yadav’s remark that the alliance’s ambit was limited to Lok Sabha polls has surprised all. It adds a new dimension to the prevailing uncertainty. Heartburn against the Congress party is evident within the Samajwadi Party (SP) which fought the byelection for nine seats two months ago without alliance with the Congress. It is not known why Congress did not claim a quota from its ally.

The alliance had a decent yield in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year. The SP’s declaration of support for AAP in Delhi polls is yet another indication that all is not well between it and the Congress at the national level. Congress which till very recently was considered the main axis of opposition unity, is fast losing the goodwill of its allies. Their unity brought them considerable dividends during the April-June General Elections by bringing down the BJP’s tally to 240 and a decline of 50 seats for the NDA. But then Congress’ arrogance stemming from marginal uptick in its fortunes, has rocked the incipient solidarity. The party’s brute rejection of AAP’s claim for a slice of seats in Haryana Assembly elections proved to be disastrous for both. The Congress’s supercilious attitude triggered fissures in the INDIA bloc.

Hindsight reveals that show of some accommodation could have proved beneficial for both or could have made the defeat less disgraceful. Even while lack of accommodation of rival claims may be the latest cause for rifts, the alliance suffers from demonstrable deficiency of a national agenda. Opposition of the BJP is not proving a sufficient glue for allies to stick together. The BJP woos away INDIA allies with the bait of a Bharat Ratna for a past patriarch (as the case of Rashtriya Lok Dal suggests) or a national memorial for some worthies perceived to have been not been honoured adequately by rival parties. Unity to defeat the BJP is no cause in itself.

BJP’s failure to ensure Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers; jobless growth; concentration of wealth in the hands of a few corporates; indictment of Adani firms by agencies in the courts in the United States and flagging of issues in the international media; reduction of corporate taxes; waiving off loans to big borrowers and Agniveer scheme that shortens the tenure of youth in the Army; should have provided the ample ammunition and reasons for rallying together the opposition. But no concerted and meaningful opposition is in evidence. Instead, the people are witnessing the disgusting spectacle of differences, divergence and dissonance within the INDIA allies on a day to day basis. Certainly it is no way to forge ahead.