Opposition needs politicians like Jayaprakash Narayan to be in it
Post Date – 12:45 AM, Monday – July 3rd
Author: Amitava Mukherjee
Whenever there is talk of opposition unity, Jayaprakash Narayan’s name always comes up. But the problem is that Jayaprakash was an idealistic titan and after his death there are no titans left in the Indian socio-political arena. At the recently concluded secret meeting of opposition parties in Patna, two men rose politically under the direction of Jayaprakash Narayan – Nitish Kumar and Ralu Prasad Yadav. But these two are mere dwarfs compared to the venerable Jayaprakash. Nitish Kumar has a unique record of switching sides. Then there’s Lalu Prasad Yadav — well, everyone knows him.
So Mamata Banerjee should think twice before using the name Jayaprakash Narayan and associating the name of the great freedom fighter with the opposition meeting in Patna. JP fought for a cause – the cause of saving democracy from the clutches of Indira Gandhi’s emergency. 16 opposition parties meeting in Patna, what cause and ideals are proposed to the people of India?
compared to 1977
The only time in India’s recent history that there was unity of the opposition was in 1977, when Jayaprakash Narayan united multiple parties against Indira Gandhi’s state of emergency. But it happened on the litmus test of principle and policy. Just remember the names who were at the forefront of the fight against Indira and his Congress Party – Morarji Desai, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Madou Limaye, George Fernandez, Madou Dandawat, Nanaji Deshmuh and others. Not one of them carries any burden of corruption. TOLL. None of the main opposition parties – the Congress, the People’s Sanger or the Socialist Party – is plagued by internal divisions. Furthermore, leading politicians in opposition groups are rarely accused of being political traitors.
This is the Achilles heel of the group which is currently meeting in Patna and intends to meet in Shimla in the near future. Sharad Pawar and his National Congress party are rumored to be suffering from an internal struggle between Supriya Sur and Ajit Pawar.
Mamata Banerjee’s tenure as chief minister of West Bengal has cast a long shadow. Almost all the top officials in her education department are in jail on corruption charges. So much so that she had to appoint a new education minister, since the previous one is now in prison. In Bihar, Lalu’s RJD is currently in power in partnership with Janata Dhar (United Party). But the stigma of corruption is there.
geographic picture
Let’s look at the geographic picture. The opposition has a firm footing only in Bihar. Mayawati was absent from the meeting. She may have performed poorly in the last Uttar Pradesh assembly election. But that doesn’t mean Behenge has lost all caste support. Who’s to say she won’t spread the anti-BJP vote across at least 30 seats in the 2024 parliamentary elections? What’s more, Akshilesh Yadav and his Samajwadi party are now but a shadow of the past.
Opposition got off to a bad start, unable to woo Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik, Andhra Pradesh’s Jaganmohan Reddy or Chandrababu Naidu and Telangana’s Chandra Shekar Rao. Large tracts of land in the east and south of the country remain untouched by the opposition. The DMK in Tamil Nadu alone cannot have much influence on the final electoral calculations.
In Telangana, not only the BJP but also the Congress party are trying to block Chandrashekar Rao’s path. The latter’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi has all-India ambitions, and in no case will the Telangana chief minister offer Congress as one of the main partners. Leave no room for a conglomerate.
In addition, there will be tense situations in Kerala, where the Congress Party and the Communist Party of Malaysia will start a battle of ding-dong. The election situation in Kerala is set to become more chaotic as the BJP is trying to win over the Christian minority, in which the Congress party has a large following. If Congress feels threatened by this segment of the electorate, it will naturally try to poach voters from the traditional left. Will CPM tolerate this?
rebellious claim
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) remains a rebel organisation. Do not think that the dispute between the AAP and the Congress Party is just the result of the Congress Party’s refusal to make it public and to commit in advance to oppose the central government’s decree on government affairs in Delhi. It’s basically a regional domination war. Still, the Congress party cannot accept the fact that it has ceded Delhi and Punjab to the United Arab Party and is ceding its political base in Haryana to Arvind Kejriwal political parties. Moreover, the AAP is demonstrating the full potential of using soft Hinduism against the BJP, a trait that the Congress party has been desperately trying to master for years.
Opposition leaders are talking about issuing some kind of manifesto in the near future. This has to be very different from the BJP’s policy. So far, there is little difference between the BJP and the Congress in terms of economic thinking. Both are caught in economic laissez-faire. How will the MCP accept such a policy? Perhaps Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav would also have reservations about that.
History shows that Congress has always viewed federalism in terms of its own existence. It sees itself as the only political force capable of holding India together, and is therefore reluctant to give much space to regional parties, despite the fact that the “one-party-centred federal structure” is outdated in India.
To solve all these problems, a politician is needed in the opposition party. Alas! There is no such person in sight.
