Events & Issues
New
Delhi, 16 August, 2017
BJP’s Excesses
CAN OPPOSITION UNITE?
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
Tagore had written in
an essay titled ‘What is a Nation?’ that it “is a vital spirit, a living
entity” and in another he observed “everyone in a nation sacrifices his
interest to promote the national interest”. But these have become theoretical
propositions as people are not quite satisfied with the manner of functioning
of leaders of most political parties, which leaves much to be desired as they
do not have any national developmental perspective in mind.
In this connection it
is significant to mention that a certain section of intellectuals have started
raising their voice against certain policies of the NDA government which appear
to be not quite conducive to the healthy growth of society. The fumes of hatred
and religious animosity let loose in the country at the behest of the ruling
consortium leading to decline in brotherhood and fellow-feeling has been a
serious problem in recent times.
Apart from this
aspect the somewhat autocratic attitude – which is quite normal for
institutions with full powers at its command – of the government, leading to
excesses is also another problem. The question arises what effect would these
have in the state of affairs or to be more specific in the next Lok Sabha
elections. However, much would depend on the shape of things that evolves in
the coming months before the elections.
One may recall that
the poor the state of governance in the country and reports of corruption at
various places led to the rejection of the UPA government. Though things have
started moving well after the NDA came to power with an inspirational leader in
Modi backed by able implementation of various plans and programmes, there have
been certain aspects in its functioning that have evoked widespread criticism.
Religion was never
directly brought into politics by any previous government. This lack of
religion and State has eaten away at India’s religious amity. It was stated
that “the State shall not establish, endow or patronise any particular
religion”. But unfortunately the present government has started playing with
this aspect by trying to highlight the Hindutva doctrine while neglecting the
minorities, specially Muslims in the country.
A government should
function on the basis of certain declared intentions of the parties that form
the coalition not on the philosophy of organisations like the RSS, Hindu
Mahasabha. This has led to growing animosity and led to violence in several
parts of the country.
Apart from all these,
the lack of consolidation of forces against the present establishment is not
quite strong. Moreover, the Congress has not been able to provide the
much-needed leadership to build a strong opposition. Added to this, the exit of
Nitish Kumar from the opposition fold has been a serious setback. The surprise
element in both UP and Bihar contributed immeasurably to the sense of dejection
and desperation in opposition ranks.
Political analysts
feel the significant fallout of this development has been that opposition unity
has been further jeopardised. The Congress due to various factors which
included lack of a viable leadership, previous involvement of its leaders in
various scams and most importantly loss of contact with the masses has failed
to pose a major challenge to the BJP and the present government. Its
credibility is at a low peak and the grand alliance, which it may head before
the Lok Sabha elections, may not prove to be quite effective.
This is because the
NDA has been steadily gaining popularity through various programmes, with 2019
being somewhat of a foregone conclusion. Modi’s connect with the masses aided
by the strategy of his party is increasing its popularity. However, there is
criticism of some of his economic policies, specially those related to the farm
sector. But with the present development in Bihar, the prospects for the BJP
and the NDA have become still brighter.
Meanwhile, some
remedial steps have been taken by the Congress. While Rahul Gandhi is making
all efforts to reach out to the masses, a significant development has been the
recent formation of All India Professionals Congress (AIPC) headed by Shashi
Tharoor. This appears an ambitious initiative into a social realm that doesn’t
make its political choices on an ideological basis. The AIPC would have a
national executive with city level chapters as its basic building block to help
professionals meet their aspirations and demands. Moreover, each chapter would
have a Social Economic Welfare Action Committee (SEWA) to carry out
projects/campaigns on economy, jobs, women’s empowerment, urban infrastructure,
environment, health, education etc.
While this appears to
be a significant step, there is also need to counter the BJP’s aggressive
attitude in weaning out legislators from other parties which does not go well
with the people. Added to this is the fact that only through money power, it
could form the governments in Goa and Manipur though Congress was the largest
single party. Even in Meghalaya, BJP formed the government through unscrupulous
means.
It is time that there
has to be a sustained campaign to propagate ideal secularism in the country,
specially as there is various religious minorities having different religious
beliefs and way of life. Whether it is Gandhi, Deen Dayal Upadhyay or many others
all of whom talked of giving various religious groups the right to live their
own way of life within the framework of the Constitution, this appears to be
throttled presently.
The excesses being
committed by the BJP needs to be corrected if they want to withstand opposition
attempts to unify the parties. Moreover its strategy of undermining leaders
such as Nehru does not lead the NDA to any favourable position. The Congress
has thus to build both an ideological and political campaign to counter the ruling
party’s way of tackling social and political issues by involving the masses as
also the educated elite.
Though there is no
leader worth the stature Jayaprakash Narayan now, who will lead? Will Rahul be
acceptable? Regional leaders like Naveen Patnaik, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata
Banerjee, Sitaram Yechury and others have to come forward unitedly to lead the
campaign against the BJP. Most of these leaders have a relatively clean image
and, as such, this would go a long way in receiving acceptability of the
masses, a certain section of which are not quite satisfied with the NDA.
The State elections,
specially that of Gujarat in November this year, before that of the Lok Sabha
would only reflect how strong is the strength of the opposition. Though in Gujarat,
reports indicate that Congress may increase its strength dislodging the BJP
from power appears rather impossible. Meanwhile, at the national level, a lot
needs to be done through strong organisational tie-ups and sustained campaigns
in different parts of the country.
Finally, the
character of politicians has to improve as also their dedication towards nation
building. Through greater stress on decentralisation and involvement of the
panchayat raj institutions, governance of the system can become more responsive
and reach the lowest tiers of the population. Whether the present government
would be able to carry this forward and gain strength in the forthcoming
elections or whether the opposition would consolidate and pose a sizeable force
remains to be seen. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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