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in 1989, in spite of winning 197 seats, Rajiv Gandhi opted not to form the government, despite being the largest single largest party. This was based on his assessment that people’s mandate was against him, after the landslide victory of 404 seats in 1984.
It is quite heartening to see that the INDIA bloc has decided not to claim to form the government, for the time being. This is an important step for multiple reasons.
1. Put The House back in order
The Parliament, the shrine of democracy, has become a mockery of sorts. The monstrous majority enjoyed by BJP in the Lower House of Parliament, has given it the audacity and arrogance to conduct itself according to its whims and fancies, defying even the so-called allies in NDA. The word NDA, itself has suddenly come to the fore, after the 2024 election results. It was all BJP, Modi and Shah, for the past decade.
Any bill, the BJP wished could be put through the Parliament, without any major challenge. Remember, till a decade ago, any MP could stand up and raise his voice to get the bill amended, before it was passed. Such attempts were dealt with, in recent years.
The tradition of the House was to let an opposition member lead the Foreign Policy Committee till BJP took over, as explained by Shashi Tharoor in this interview. This was scrapped in 2014. The traditions and subordination followed, needs to be respected.
The Rajya Sabha, was one place BJP still didn’t have a good grip until recently, but that too, they managed to systemically crumble down with their might over the years.
The matter of fact is, though there are pitfalls in having such a long and complex procedure involved in legislation, it should not be forgotten there are reasons why they are put in place. Now is the time to retrospect on why they have been in place and one can only wonder what the repercussions would have been on the integrity of our constitution, had things been easier.
2. The INDIA bloc requires Administrative Cohesion
The INDIA alliance was formed with one goal; to get over the humongous task of getting over the line of 272 seats. The Indian National Congress finally came to terms with the fact that, gone are the days it could single-handedly overcome the might and cult of Modi and BJP. And rightly so, they started talking with regional parties, putting aside the big brother ego. The scheme itself has to be lauded, since the odds were completely against all parties and they were crippled to the extent possible. Tortured, wouldn’t be an overstatement. However, pushed to the wall, everyone agreed to accommodate the commonalities and put aside the differences.
But, here is the fact. The differences do exist. And most of these parties would have split away from Congress, at some juncture, post independence. Let’s assume the alliance had got 30 more seats. I do not think there would have been the resilience they are showing today. Every Tom, Dick and Harry would have put his claim on the cake and threatened to pull out, when the chance arose.
Administrative experience is a big deal. What the numbers we have done today is two-fold
- Made the BJP sober down and accommodate allies, for itself to stay afloat
- Reinforce the anti-BJP bloc that their existence is dependant on staying united
The long game with these assertions, will require the government to have to cooperate with the Opposition. Dialogue and trade-offs which will accommodate perspectives will be back on the table. Different committees will have to be formed with participation from different personnel from different parties. This is a win-win situation. Eventually, it will be organically clear which person is best suited for which portfolio, which would otherwise have been strong held for.
3. The Media needs to comeback to the center, from right
Media and news were always manipulated. History and narratives were always made by the ones who were powerful or victorious.
But, we are in an age where there are too many channels for the truth to finally come out. You can spew venom and propagate your propaganda. In fact, see the number of senior journalists who left mainstream media in the past few years, Prannoy Roy, Barkha Dutt, Ravish Kumar, Faye D’souza etc. to name a few. Online space has enabled them to stay vocal with freedom, in spite of BJP’s diktats. The role Dhruv Rathee had in bringing sanctity among voters is immaculate.
This needs to go on. Dancing to the tune of powerhouses and popular narratives will do the nation no good. A spade needs to be called a spade.
4. The Sane voices need to comeback
Many subject experts took the route of silence in the past many years, either in despair or fear. They felt hopelessness at the might of what was unfurling in a way. If a government decided to hunt them down on their gray areas, we would lose expertise in what they are really good at.
Our academia and activists need to keep asking the questions, without fearing their freedom. Democracy cannot function on its own. It requires immense inputs from the institutions and individuals.
The Future
As N Ram of The Hindu rightly said in this interview, you never forget the person who put you behind the bars. My perception of Chandrababu Naidu was always of a gentleman, and who did exceedingly well as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. I hope he will be a necessary corrective force in the Modi 3.0. He himself was mortified by the Home Ministry, which should make him say enough is enough, when it matters. And Nitish Kumar has proved over the years he was ready to take any side, as it suited him and his party, at various junctures. Funnily enough, he was one of the founding leaders of the INDIA alliance.
It’s funny how BJP and its disciples keep saying that they are the biggest single party! Their inner demons, the games they played in the past keeps haunting and will haunt them to keep defending themselves and proclaim, “But we won!”, in spite of a spectacular nose dive from tall claim.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint