The path to Opposition unity seems to be getting riddled with daunting hurdles. With the Opposition parties’ second meeting scheduled to take place in Bengaluru during July 17-18, fresh barriers are coming in their way.
The leadership of several Opposition parties have sought to delink developments in states from larger national politics in order not to let their regional tussles derail the attempts to forge a common front against the BJP at the national level.
The split in the NCP has dealt a severe blow to the Opposition parties’ unity efforts anyways. NCP president Sharad Pawar, the seniormost leader in the Opposition camp, has suffered a huge setback and is now directing all his energies to regain control over his splintered party.
The bloody violence during Panchayat polls in West Bengal, the arrest of senior Punjab Congress leader O P Soni by the state’s Vigilance Bureau and the CBI’s chargesheet against RJD leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav in the alleged land-for-jobs scam are some of the other hurdles. The Opposition parties however seem to be determined not to let these irritants come in the way of their unity.
In Bihar, CM and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, who likes to flaunt his “clean image” is going out of his way to show his support for Tejashwi, even as the BJP is turning the heat on him. Sending out a message of unity, Kumar reached the state Assembly Monday with Tejashwi and his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, a cabinet minister, in his car to attend the opening day of its monsoon session. The idea, it seems, was to signal that there is no rift in the ruling Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance).
Kumar, who has often asserted that there will be no compromise on crime, corruption and communalism, has found himself in a tricky situation yet again.
In Punjab, the arrest of Soni, the former Deputy CM, has raised the hackles of the state Congress, with its Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, accusing the AAP government of allegedly misusing the government machinery to target and malign the image of the Congress leaders.
The Congress central leadership, on the other hand, has maintained a silence over the Soni affair. Congress sources said the party high command would prefer to ignore such issues for the time being as the focus was on the broader issues of Opposition unity. But Soni’s arrest has clearly complicated the Congress-AAP ties, already strained over the AAP linking its participation in the Bengaluru meet to the Congress denouncing the BJP-led Centre’s contentious Delhi ordinance that takes control of administrative services from the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government.
After the Opposition parties’ first meeting in Patna on June 23, the AAP had declared that unless the Congress publicly opposes the ordinance it would be “very difficult” for the party to be a part of any alliance that includes the grand old party. Sources in the Congress said the party is unlikely to announce its stand on this issue before the Bengaluru meeting and that its position would become clear during the discussion on the issue in Parliament.
The widespread violence that marred polling in West Bengal Panchayat polls has surfaced as another obstacle. The state units of both the Congress and the CPI(M) have accused the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of “murdering democracy” in the state. But the Congress high command – barring an odd comment made by party president Mallikarjun Kharge condemning the violence – has largely chosen to remain silent on the matter.
Kharge too was cautious choosing not to attack the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC and merely saying there should be fair elections, otherwise there will be no democracy. The CPM, on the other hand, is in a catch-22 situation. Unlike the Congress’s central leadership, the CPI(M)’s national leaders do not shy away from attacking the TMC. Mamata too does not hold her fire against the CPI(M) and the Congress.
“Violence in Bengal is nothing new. The Opposition meeting is something new. But the violence in Bengal is not new. Yes, we have been suffering. The people of Bengal are suffering. The Trinamool Congress is trying to protect itself by means of violence and misusing state power to stay in power. But the Bengaluru meeting will be there. What the BJP is doing from Manipur to elsewhere in the last nine years…the Indian population is gearing up to take on the Modi regime. So all those who are opposing BJP…there should be some coordination inside Parliament and outside Parliament to protect our constitutional values,” the CPI(M)’s Bengal state secretary Md Salim said.
Asked how the leaders of the TMC, Congress and CPI(M) could sit across a table when there is such bloodletting on the streets of Bengal, Salim said, “Political commentators and journalists should know that India is a federal country. Manipur is burning, so to stop this burning everybody will come together. Since pre-Independence days, Communists have always said that let the people unite.…workers of world unite.”
While the Congress was largely silent, senior party leader Digvijaya Singh tweeted: “What is happening in Panchayat Polls in Bengal is frightening. I have been an admirer of Mamta of her grit and determination but what is happening is unpardonable. We know you bravely faced similar situation in CPM rule but what is happening now is not good for our Democracy.”