By Chiranjib Haldar
“Nitish Kumar’s exit has pumped adrenalin into a moribund opposition. AAP’s escalating tussle with the BJP is not only a poser for the NDA alliance’s invincibility but presents Arvind Kejriwal as a challenger.”
In the prelude to the 1989 General elections, Congress sponsored billboards startled pedestrians with a query: how many prime ministers will a country have? The nation went bonkers with the Bofors controversy and the artillery guns became a cogwheel for the electorate. Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh’s Janata Dal spearheading the anti-Congress front and an ebullient BJP cobbling in tandem to defeat the Rajiv Gandhi regime. More than three decades later, the wheel has come full circle. Only the crusaders have changed. Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) severing ties with the NDA, with the Bihar Chief Minister donning the turncoat’s mantle again and cosying up to Lalu Yadav’s RJD, all giving a fillip to the index of opposition unity. If it is a shot in the arm for an anti-BJP front in the offing, this severance of ties may have been a blessing in disguise. It has indirectly strengthened the Congress and the seeming coalition of regional satraps.
Since the notion of a non-Congress, non-BJP Third Front has been a mirage for long, as past experiments with the United Front have proven, it can only be the Congress at the centre-stage of any opposition unity. Ghulam Nabi Azad’s resignation missive to the Congress party has thrown up a fundamental query. Can the party survive or flourish sans the Gandhis? Long before these resignations were in the pipeline, the G-23 dissenters had stressed that Rahul Gandhi was fortifying himself from his senior party colleagues. The spate of resignations of senior party leaders notwithstanding, Congress’ campaign for a national renewal remains on track. The moot question: can the Bharat Jodo Yatra, a supposed Congress antithesis to the present regime still upset the BJP applecart?
In recent surveys, the Narendra Modi-led BJP may be ahead of the opposition coalition despite the Congress sticking to its flagbearer responsibility. And Tejaswi Yadav’s ‘cry wolf’ tirade at the BJP after getting a chance to claim responsibility in Bihar or Nitish Kumar harbouring prime ministerial ambitions and taking one final shot as an aspirant does have many takers. Only it gives a shove to the BJP to encash on the simmering discontent among opposition stalwarts and play its disciplinarian card. It also gives the party the opportunity to consolidate its alliance with steady partners through thick and thin.
What is most palpable with a shrinking of the NDA is that BJP’s numbers have dwindled in the Rajya Sabha. As numbers stack up, the upper house is on a knife’s edge and Nitish Kumar’s exit from the NDA does have a bearing on the party’s equations. Though BJP still remains the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha, its dependence on NDA allies like AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal and YSR Congress will increase for the passage of so many pending crucial bills. Even with three more nominee MPs and the Tripura seat likely in its tally, the NDA’s strength will still be short of the half-way mark, a sure dampener of sorts.
Many political observers and sundry were startled, some within the Congress party appeared astounded by a stalwart and veteran party leader like Ghulam Nabi Azad hanging his boots. The timing was characteristically astute; the grand old party was at last charting out a terrain to elect a new President and preparing to capture lost ground in Jammu and Kashmir. When most critics and diehard Congress loyalists pointed to a somnambulating outfit, the party was shedding off flab. It was showing signs of rejuvenation. The upcoming Bharat Jodo Yatra ensured a political party returning to its grassroots and amplifying its relevance in today’s polity.
Political scientist Zoya Hasan in her recent book has opined how the Congress’ topsy turvy electoral fortunes have more to do with wounds that run deeper. She asserts, ‘Whether secularism can remain India’s defining ideology will depend in part on the BJP’s future electoral success but, above all, on the strategies the Congress adopts to counter divisive politics engendered by this regime.’ An aberrational brand of nationalism which was never the cornerstone of India’s freedom movement seems to have gained traction. The most formidable challenge to the Congress is sustaining the pluralist idea of India it has always espoused and promoted. And this is where like-minded opposition parties can bolster the Congress led UPA to offer an alternative unifying vision to divisive politics.
The existential angst of the once powerful Congress party and its malaise has more to do with the erosion of centrist philosophy. An alternate political narrative where the party shuns soft majoritarianism and revitalises its solidarity with the masses by focusing on issues relevant to public welfare and rebuilding its network at the grassroots is imperative at this juncture. The Congress ship, as recent meltdowns show, is full of proverbial deserters who all want to be the captain and have put the onus of ineptitude on the party’s central leadership. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, umpteen spokespersons leaving for good as they feel, all have made the Congress a rudderless ship in shambles. Even at the cost of electoral debacles, the party is unlikely to let go of the unwilling Gandhis and the outcome of the presidential elections being anybody’s guess.
Nitish Kumar’s exit has pumped adrenalin into a moribund opposition. AAP’s escalating tussle with the BJP is not only a poser for the NDA alliance’s invincibility but presents Arvind Kejriwal as a challenger. A decimated Congress on the verge of resuscitation with a leadership crisis and a mass unification campaign has more up its sleeves. The ideological shifts in the last decade echo not merely a political transformation ongoing in India but the ideological consolidation of the right in India, an experience which can only be fought tooth and nail by the grand dame of Indian polity, the Congress.
One needs to witness the role plays on display. There must be an antidote to the societal gobbling of the centrist space on lines of caste and religion and incessant polarisation. Despite all the hoopla by a section of commentators, even a fractured opposition with the Congress at the helm can challenge the NDA threadbare on the road to the 2024 hustings. Multiple aspirants for the coveted top slot often at loggerheads, can never be a deterrent.
(The writer is a commentator on politics and society.)