Opposition Role

APART FROM A clutch of constituencies that vote in the first of the seven-phase parliamentary election, electioneering at the grassroots level hasn’t yet quite begun.

Yes, the positioning exercise of the top guns of the ruling BJP has begun and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ensured that he is in a different part of the country each day, with the TV cameras in tow. At the BJP headquarters in Delhi, judging by the number of significant political and other dignitaries signing up for the party each day, the party’s dedicated florist must be doing fantastic business. The size and quality of the bouquets presented to the new entrants are very impressive, and quite unaffordable to my modest pocket.

The other side, notably the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, isn’t entirely inactive. There are stray BJP malcontents joining Congress here and there. But most of the new recruits are accruing to the regional parties. Trinamool Congress, a party that isn’t as cash-strapped as Congress, hosted a huge public meeting at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s favourite nephew was Master of Ceremonies. He introduced the handful of B-rated celebrities who will be among the Trinamool candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. Some of them will undoubtedly win and add a touch of glamour to the next Lok Sabha.

Yet, judged from an all-India perspective, the opposition to BJP seems to be in a shambles. Congress has seen a veritable exodus of the leaders that were projected as the future of the party during the 10 years of the Manmohan Singh government. Of that lot, only Sachin Pilot perseveres (uncomfortably) in Congress. The others, notably Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh, and many others, have all signed up for BJP and are contesting the Lok Sabha election on the lotus symbol.

The influx of many such Congress stalwarts into BJP is no doubt an indication that Rahul Gandhi isn’t quite succeeding in energising the party into playing a meaningful opposition role. If Congress doesn’t better its 2014 and 2019 performance in any significant way, it is not going to be attributed to the ‘match-fixing’ ways of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The theory that Indian elections are fixed may have an audience of the small handful that thrive on complex conspiracies, but I doubt if even the committed Congress activists believe that Modi can steal an entire election. The Congress MLAs in places such as Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh certainly don’t share the view that the EVMs are loaded in favour of BJP.

One of Rahul Gandhi’s consistent themes since 2014 has been the suit-boot ki sarkar jibe against the Modi government. Whatever little traction this anti-rich slogan enjoyed in the first year of the Modi government, its efficacy has been totally blunted since the government initiated a slew of welfare programmes targeting different underprivileged sections. In theory, India has witnessed a long line of welfare programmes from the days of Indira Gandhi. What is different about Modi’s welfarism? First, in terms of reach, Modi has been able to use technology to reach people and plug leakages. Corruption hasn’t been eliminated entirely, especially in the schemes where the state government is the nodal agency, but at least there is a stupendous improvement from the days Rajiv Gandhi claimed that 10 paise out of every rupee of government welfare assistance reached the beneficiary. Secondly, in terms of marketing government schemes imaginatively, the Modi government has few rivals. However, in case anyone feels that Modi’s schemes are all hype, it is important to note that publicity acts as a force multiplier precisely because there are tangible achievements on the ground.

Rahul Gandhi seems to be enamoured by a set of Left cronies who have decided that this is a government controlled by a coterie of big industrialists. They have seized on the fact that corporate houses such as the Ambanis, Adanis and Tatas have prospered to make out a case for crony capitalism. What is being overlooked is that in India’s growth story since 2014, the private sector has played a key role, as has the public sector whose share prices have skyrocketed. Secondly, the anti-business mood that gripped India in the 1970s and led to at least two decades of missed opportunities has disappeared. It has been replaced by a pragmatism that is based on an emphasis on delivery, quality, cost effectiveness and, not least, Made in India. Rahul’s carping Left rhetoric is out of tune with the dominant mood in India.

The election results are viewed with anticipation. Equally, how Congress will cope with its stagnation will also be of interest to all politics watchers.

About The Author

Swapan Dasgupta

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