Vandita Mishra writes: When the Opposition refuses to hold

The fact that Congress, the centre-piece of the INDIA bloc, is still far too shrunk and weak despite increasing its Lok Sabha tally to 99-seats, makes it unable to play the role of negotiator and navigator in chief. It also contributes to making the alliance look less than a coherent whole, and more vulnerable to being buffeted by the short term calculations of its individual parts.

But whatever the reason, the visible inability of the INDIA bloc to carry on after the Lok Sabha election in some recognisable structure or form has a long-term cost. It reinforces a dispiriting message in a democracy — of a lack of an alternative to the dominant party. While the BJP works towards its ends purposefully, whether it wins an election or loses it — after a defeat, it is quick to pick up the pieces — its political opponents seem always prone to giving up and losing sight of what brings them together, and/or defining their unity too narrowly.

At the national level, therefore, the crumbling of the INDIA bloc plays perfectly to the BJP’s script — the BJP has always accused it of being an opportunistic platform, united only by the negative agenda of defeating the BJP. It suits the BJP that its opponents should be different regional parties in different states, and that there should only be a makeshift national-level adversary — its nation-wide plans and ambitious projects have a free run if its challengers are much smaller platforms with agendas of a limited scope and width.

If the BJP looks unruffled and complacent, not humbled, despite its own setback in the Lok Sabha polls in which voters denied it a majority, therefore, it is not merely because of its victories in Haryana and Maharashtra. It is also because even in between elections, the INDIA block is not exactly giving it a run for its money.

The lack of a coherent and purposeful Opposition that can keep the BJP on its toes shows up in many ways, across the polity. It allows the BJP to, for instance, continue to run its coalition government as if it were led by a single party with a majority. It is not incidental that the present ruling arrangement, in which the BJP depends on the TDP and JD(U) to make the majority mark, has no institutionalised forum for coordination or for allies to air their concerns or grievances.

Even within the BJP, important things have not changed, despite the rebuke to it implicit in the LS verdict. As a report in this paper revealed, the centralisation of decision-making continues unchecked, taking a toll on inner-party mechanisms and processes. More than six months after the 18th Lok Sabha was formed, the BJP Parliamentary Party, once a vibrant forum, has not met. Meetings of the BJP parliamentary board, the apex decision-making body, have become few and far between. This means that chief ministers for states are picked by the top leadership in the manner of an ambush, even surprising the rest of the party. For the Delhi polls, the first list of 29 names was finalised without a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee.

In its third term, the Modi government continues to evade questions and bypass institutions. Towards the end of the week, came PM Modi’s first podcast interview, he spoke to billionaire entrepreneur and investor Nikhil Kamath. Kamath was candid about the fact that he wasn’t a journalist, his interview consisted mainly of asking the PM to give self-help tips on how to be a politician to young wannabe entrepreneurs who form the bulk of his audiences.

That, in his third term, the PM chose to talk, for over two hours, on subjects ranging from losing a parent to the difference between oratory and communication and his views on public responsibility, on a soft-focus show that allowed him an extended selfie, while consistently staying away from Parliament and institutional media forums, is also because he knows there will be no penalties. It is another indication of just how untrammelled and unaccountable, in the absence of a vigilant and coherent opposition, he feels.

Till next week,

Vandita