Express View on the Opposition: What INDIA needs
Express View on the Opposition: What INDIA needs
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As the new year takes the baton from the old, and with the parliamentary contest only months away, three images of the country’s Opposition seem resonant. In no particular order: AAP and Congress, two prominent members of the joint anti-BJP front, INDIA, are locked in an impasse over seat-sharing in Delhi and Punjab, and one of them, Congress, is also up against the Shiv Sena wall on the same issue in Maharashtra.
In West Bengal, festering tensions between the so-called old and new guards within Mamata Banerjee’s TMC spilled into the open, with factions loyal to state president Subrata Bakshi and general secretary Abhishek Banerjee exchanging taunts on the occasion of the party’s Foundation day.
And the fog is yet to lift within the Opposition front on the question of whether to go to Ayodhya for the inauguration of the Ram temple on January 22, or not, with the CPM its only prominent member so far to clearly rule out its participation. The three images point to three Opposition challenges that will become more and more urgent in 2024.
Of course, it won’t be just three. INDIA must deal with more than conflicts of interest between constituent parties, turbulence within them, and the difficulties of framing and coordinating responses to issues thrown by the dominant BJP. What it will also have to find answers for, as the election countdown grows louder, are questions that involve not just parties but also the people.
After all, when all the calculating and negotiating and compromising within and between parties is done, the crucial task of convincing and persuading the people will still remain. Why will the supporters of the AAP or SP or TMC, for instance, vote for the Congress, and will they, really, just because the parties have firmed up a bargain on poll-eve? Are the Opposition’s arithmetic sequences and sums reason enough? Why will voters prefer INDIA if it offers them a reactive or BJP-lite position on important issues, as it seems to be currently doing, instead of articulating an agenda that is more imaginative and affirmative?
As much as it constantly projects a confident and optimistic vision, the Modi agenda also counts on an accumulated voter pessimism and cynicism vis a vis Opposition parties.
The BJP has a formidable communication machine, but the message has gone through even without it — the onus of proving their innocence is on parties of the Opposition. Be it on the issue of dynastic rule or complicity in corruption, or bad faith arguments made over the years in the name of secularism or social justice, they must reach out to the people and regain their trust. Essentially, INDIA must find ways to win the voters, not just fight the BJP. In the new year, in a democracy that functions best when a strong government is met with a strong Opposition, that will be key.
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