Chidambaram says Team Modi formidable, INDIA bloc weak, headless

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram conceded that the BJP was a formidable party and doubted the ability of the Opposition INDI alliance to mount a challenge against the ruling party.

Speaking at the launch of a book co-authored by his party colleague Salman Khurshid and Mrityunjay Singh Yadav, the former minister said that he did it not consider the opposition alliance’s future to be bright. “The future (of INDIA bloc) is not so bright, as Mritunjay Singh Yadav said. He seems to feel that the alliance is still intact, but I am not sure. It is only Salman (Khurshid) who can answer because he was part of the negotiating team for the INDIA bloc. If the alliance is totally intact, I will be very happy. But it shows at the seams that it is frayed,” Chidambaram said.

Chidambaram, many of his party colleagues agreed, was not off the mark as the alliance is yet to have a definite shape, agenda, or leadership. “The alliance is headless. It has no convenor or formal structure,” a congress leader said.

The former Union finance minister warned that the INDIA bloc was fighting against a “formidable machinery”, which must be fought on all fronts.

“In my experience and my reading of history, there has been no political party so formidably organised as the BJP. It’s not just another political party. It’s a machine behind a machine and the two machines control all the machineries in India,” he said.

“From the Election Commission to the lowest police station in the country, they (BJP) are able to control and sometimes capture these institutions. It is a formidable machinery, as much as can be allowed in a democracy,” Chidambaram said.

Sharad Pawar, a key leader of the alliance, appears to have made up his mind to decouple his faction of the NCP from the alliance. There are indications that he could merge his party with the faction led by his estranged nephew Ajit Pawar. In addition, several Congress leaders, including Shashi Tharoor, have either publicly or privately endorsed the new Modi doctrine for Pakistan – that there will be zero tolerance towards terrorism and that state and non-state actors committing terror on Indian soil will not be seen as distinct or separate entities.

However, the obvious upper hand for the NDA is not deterring Nehru family scion Rahul Gandhi from pushing his hobby horses like caste census and persistent attack on India’s wealth and job creators. What is also worrying for many in his party is the inability of the organisation to align itself with the prevailing public mood against Pakistan-sponsored terror and the government’s success in battering Pakistan’s jihadist infrastructure and its military capabilities thanks to the four-day Operation Sindoor.

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