An intricate labyrinth

An old student of mine sent a photograph and asked me to interpret it. It was nothing but a picture of members of Parliament from opposition parties sitting in Dharna on the Parliament premises outside the Houses. In the picture, focus has been given on the role of Rahul Gandhi. He has been picturized as a street fighter. I informed him that it is equivalent to the activities of college students suspended for unruly behaviour and activities. There is no difference between the two in terms of content and context. Sadly, the opposition parties are giving the impression that they are acting in a desperate mood without a meaningful response to the ruling party's activities in parliament and governance.

The ruling party, the BJP, is communicating to the public with a solid agenda of action, whether good or bad, based on its ideology. In contrast, the opposition could not communicate any meaningful actionable agenda and program with such vibrancy based on their ideology. They have ideological differences but share one common agenda: removing Narendra Modi. They failed to communicate to the masses the reasons for removing Narendra Modi.

The regional political parties aligned with the Indian National Congress (INC) have consistently acted in the past to reduce the strength of the INC both in parliament and outside. By aligning with regional parties, the Indian National Congress has lost its space in many states. The party continuously lost its support base from different social groups, and regional parties gained the support of the OBC groups. Now, it talks about OBC issues when a major chunk of OBC aligns with BJP and the regional parties.

At present, the entire opposition is not in a position to act coherently and cogently with a sense of commitment and purpose. While the BJP is projecting its agenda and communicating it to the masses in an attractive way to appeal to them, the opposition parties are not able to produce counter-narratives and programs to draw the attention of the masses. Enormous space is being left by the BJP for opposition parties to engage in meaningful political exercises. Moreover, the opposition parties have not concentrated much on doing politics on the issues of the people. They are giving the sense to the people through their activities that they are not acting on the issues of the people; rather, they concentrate much on protecting their party's interest. They have been wasting their time in bringing cohesion and order among themselves to take on the BJP. Currently, the BJP and its leadership are vibrant with people by using emotional cards, but they are losing international support as Modi's leadership is a big challenge to many leaders of superpowers.

The present BJP government provides enormous opportunities for the INC to emerge as an alternative, but the INC lacks the intellectual and cadre bases to make use of them. It requires a significant amount of intellectualism to reposition itself to counter the BJP and regional political parties. Ideologically, it is not able to align with regional political parties; it aligns with them with the singular agenda of removing Narendra Modi. Furthermore, it requires a mass leader to connect with people and advocate for action on the ground. The INC lacks the needed leadership, intellectual base, and party cadre on the ground to act aggressively, unlike the BJP, which possesses all the requisites, namely leadership, actionable agenda, and party cadres within the party and outside the RSS.

By playing hide-and-seek games with regional parties, the INC is continuously losing its base and is unable to regain the support of the masses. Regional parties are clear on one aspect — the context of the election and their strength and interest in increasing their tally and, if possible, forming the government at the centre when Modi is not in a position to reach the required numbers. The regional parties are well aware that the BJP cannot be challenged by the opposition without the support of the INC, as the BJP is powerful with its connections to the masses. The INC and the regional parties have given the people the sense that they have not solidified their alliance or framed a program of action for facing the next election in 2024.

Consistently, regional political parties are acting to diminish the image of the Indian National Congress and its leadership, specifically Rahul Gandhi. The leaders of the regional parties feel that their leadership alone brings victory, not the INC and its leadership. They aim to increase their tally in the forthcoming election to act as a force to reckon with while forming a government if the BJP fails to secure a majority. Against this backdrop, they are acting, which is not good for democracy. Their main aim is to escape from the cases brought against them by the CBI, ED, and the Income Tax Department. Through their actions, they demonstrate that they are working on their personal agenda, not on the agenda of the people, as indicated by public intellectuals through their writings and speeches many times.

Meanwhile, the BJP is preparing its agenda based on its ideological foundation, whether it is good or bad, and pushing it to the people for their acceptance. The opposition parties have failed to counter the narratives and actions of the BJP as they could not achieve unity among themselves, either in evolving narratives and actionable programs or in trusting each other. Now, the leadership boat is sailing in troubled waters. As a result, the country loses its opposition and weakens the functioning of democracy. The opposition parties have demonstrated to the public that they are facing an existential crisis as they have sunk in corruption and lost their ideological base and political morality. It is time for them to reorient themselves and work together to evolve a counter-narrative and action program on the issues of the people, instead of infighting and pushing their personal agenda to save themselves from corruption cases. If the present trend continues, many regional political parties will disappear from the political scene in the years to come. Whether they win in the election to form the government or not, they can at least act as a responsible opposition, for which they have to act sensibly and meaningfully to save democracy.

The writer is a former Professor and Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies, Gandhigram Rural Institute. Views expressed are personal