Gearing up against the Modi juggernaut

The erstwhile members of the Janata Parivar met on December 4, 2014, at the residence of Mulayam Singh Yadav in New Delhi. Those who took part were the leaders of the Samajwadi Party, the Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Indian National Lok Dal, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Samajwadi Janata Party. After the meeting, Nitish Kumar briefed the media. He said that these parties have resolved to work together, both outside Parliament and inside, and that their aim is to unite to form one party for which Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has been authorised to work out the modalities.  

This significant development provoked a great deal of discussion and media comment. Predictably, the Bharatiya Janata Party dismissed the move as a non-starter of no consequence. Its spokesman cited the previous fractious history of the Janata Parivar to claim that such a group of parties could never overcome their internal conflicts and contradictions to come together and, like in the past, they would fall apart. It was also their view that such an attempt was a desperate ploy by power hungry parties running scared of the Narendra Modi juggernaut.

Whatever the BJP’s allegations, it is time to undertake a sober assessment of what this new moves signifies. Firstly, a fundamental premise of any democracy is that it must have a strong Opposition that can responsibly check and scrutinise the government’s policies and actions in the larger interests of the nation. Today, the Opposition is undoubtedly fractured and weak, and any attempt to remedy this situation by uniting its members and enhancing their ability to audit the ruling party should and must be welcomed.  

Secondly, all the constituents of the Janata Parivar who have now resolved to move towards political unity have certain verifiable affinities. They have a common origin in the struggle for freedom and democratic rights spearheaded by Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1970s. They were part of a single political formation in the late 1970s, the Janata Party, which came to power at the Centre after defeating Indira Gandhi in the aftermath of her ill-advised move to impose the Emergency. In spite of their subsequent political differences and rivalries, they are sewn from the same ideological cloth which is roughly that of democratic socialism. And  currently, they are united on several issues which affect the well-being of the vast masses of our citizens.  

Thirdly, there is undeniably a sound tactical basis to this development. The last election showed that the BJP can scrape together a majority on the narrowest of electoral support margins if the Opposition is divided. In spite of a massive and vicious campaign of religious polarisation on the ground, the BJP won 282 seats on an electoral support base of only 31 per cent — the lowest for any party that has won an absolute majority in the history of our democracy. Even this it was able to secure because the parties opposed to it — especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — were divided. If the index of Opposition unity were to go up, it would pose a formidable challenge to the ruling party, and this has already been demonstrated in the byelections that took place in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar very soon after the Lok Sabha elections.

Fourthly, there are very substantive issues that need to be raised about the working and intentions of the current government where all power is concentrated in the Prime Minister and his PMO. The nation is witness to the great betrayal with regard to the promises made about black money by a person no less than the PM himself. During the elections Mr Modi made the categorical promise that he will put as a gift a sum of Rs 15 lakh to 20 lakh in the pocket of every citizen of India, especially the poor, by bringing back the black money stashed away abroad. Rajnath Singh, the home minister, had promised that the money would be brought back within hundred days of their coming to power. Six months later, this government has confessed that it does not even know the amount of such money abroad! Even more seriously, it has brazenly confessed that political promise and economic processes have no co-relation.  

The direction of economic policies is also a matter of serious concern. There is incontrovertible evidence that this government is going back to the discredited “Shining India” syndrome at the cost of the well-being and needs of bulk of the middle class, the poor and the marginalised. Bullet trains, smart cities, national highways and industrial corridors traversing already developed tracts of India, fill its financial imagination when farmers are committing suicide in droves, unemployment is growing, and the social sector is being starved of funds.  Moreover, this elitist vision of development is being pursued in an atmosphere of growing communal discord. Almost every day, some senior member of the government makes statements aimed at inciting religious hatred and discord with a view to achieving the nefarious end of religious polarisation. The ultimate was when a minister of the government dubbed all those not with the BJP as haramzadas!  

It is true that in the past the attempts at unity by the Janata Parivar have been short-lived and fractious. But it is equally true that we cannot remain prisoners of history. History teaches us lessons which we can ignore only at our own peril. It can only be hoped that the fresh attempt of the Janata Parivar to come together will be informed by the lessons of the past, and that on this basis it will work to provide a counter political narrative based on good governance, inclusive growth or growth with justice, and religious and social harmony. It is also entirely likely that if this experiment succeeds, other like-minded parties, who have the same deep reservations about the functioning of this government, will join this fresh effort of maximising the unity and effectiveness of the Opposition.

Author-diplomat Pavan K. Varma has been recently elected to the Rajya Sabha