The announcement made by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal that his party will contest all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, where the party runs the state government, and the Union territory of Chandigarh, is another pointer to the disarray the INDIA bloc of Opposition parties finds itself in barely months before the Lok Sabha polls. The Janata Dal United, one of its first members, has already left it for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh is now all set to join the ruling front. The Trinamul Congress is in no mood to accommodate alliance partners in West Bengal.
It’s nobody’s case that the Opposition parties should forget all the differences members have amongst themselves, but they should at least be clear about what and whom they are opposing. Every party in the Opposition is vocal on certain points — that the NDA government has been undermining the idea of India and that every value this nation held close to it are being undermined and called to question while the government works to weaken democratic institutions. No party is in doubt about the misuse of Central investigative agencies by the BJP to hunt down Opposition leaders. But they are not yet clear on how to launch a counter-offensive.
INDIA and the leading party in the alliance, the Congress, appear to have failed to set priorities. After directing all its energies towards the Assembly elections, the Congress is now busy on two fronts — one, holding the walkathon by a former president Rahul Gandhi, and two, seat-sharing talks. The former is a late exercise and the latter is ahead of time. Interestingly, the party has not felt compelled yet to sit down with others and draft a common minimum programme by which every constituent should be bound and to which each has a commitment. The people of Pakistan have voted for a cause despite all odds. It is for the Opposition to place their cause before the Indian voter if they want the Lok Sabha polls to be a fight at all.
