Opinion | As LoP, Rahul's Biggest Task Is To Keep The Opposition Steady

Voting has been avoided for the election of Lok Sabha Speaker, but embers of confrontation remain. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi have signalled that they intend to conduct business as usual. But while the ruling alliance seems united, the same cannot be said about the Opposition. The chinks became visible as soon as the 18th Lok Sabha started functioning on Wednesday. 

A Different Rahul

One of the first things Om Birla did after being named as the Lok Sabha Speaker on June 26 was accord recognition to Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) from June 9, the day on which the Congress Working Committee had announced his selection. A different Rahul Gandhi was visible on June 26. Clad in a formal kurta pyjama (and not the casual white t-shirt that over the past two years has become his style statement), he graciously walked up to the Treasury Benches to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi in escorting the Speaker to his podium. The handshake between him and Modi was starkly different from Rahul's dazzling move in July 2018, when he had walked up to the Prime Minister across the aisle of the House and hugged him. 

This bonhomie, however, was only customary. Body language betrayed the chasm. The two leaders did not exchange pleasantries, and the Congress did not formally congratulate Modi after he was elected the Leader of the House. No encomiums were forthcoming for the LoP from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) either.

Fault Lines Intact

For the next five years, the Prime Minister and the LoP will have to sit together on a variety of occasions to select important appointees. As LoP, Rahul may also be the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which scrutinises and acts upon the reports of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG). Rahul may choose to appoint a senior member of his party to head the PAC, but his overall superintendence will stand. 

By nominating K. Suresh for the Speaker's election, the Congress has made a symbolic assertion of its revived status in Parliament. However, the move triggered dissenting notes not only from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had been at loggerheads with the Congress even as it proclaimed its allegiance to the opposition bloc, but from Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as well. Both said they had not been informed about the decision. Already, the INDIA grouping seems to have run into a communication challenge. 

Also, the Congress decided not to seek a division of votes when, after a voice vote, pro-tem Speaker Bhatruhari Mahtab declared Om Birla the Speaker. But the TMC clearly wanted a division of the House. Later, Congress leaders clarified that they were not on the same page as the TMC on the issue.

Friction Within The Opposition?

Differences within the Opposition were also visible when Birla read out a resolution to mark the 50th anniversary of the imposition of Emergency. He named Congress and its leader Indira Gandhi as he sought the Lok Sabha's condemnation of the period. The Congress protested but found itself isolated. The Samajwadi Party or SP (37 seats), the TMC (29), the DMK (22) and the Left parties (eight seats),  did not join Congress members who rushed to Well of the House. They remained seated, indicating that they had no problem with the resolution. The next day, some feeble defence of Congress was offered by these partners, saying that it had apologised for the Emergency and thus the resolution was not needed. These INDIA bloc parties together command 96 seats, as against 99 of the Congress.

Meanwhile, Rahul flaunted a red-coloured pocket-book edition of the Constitution (somewhat reminiscent of Mao Zedong's Red Book brandished in China amid the 1966 cultural revolution) while taking oath in the Lok Sabha, proclaiming 'Jai Samvidhan'. Akhilesh Yadav also waved a copy of the document, but it had a blue cover. 'UP ke ladke', while acting in unison, seem to differ in perception.

The SP is an offshoot of erstwhile Socialist parties and the Bharatiya Lok Dal, on whose 'chakra-haldhar' symbol the combined opposition had defeated the Congress post-Emergency in 1977. Its leaders were in jail during 19 months of the suspension of the Constitution. Many DMK leaders had also spent time in jail.

The TMC's Mamata Banerjee, then a Youth Congress worker, had shot to national limelight in 1975 when newspapers splashed photographs of her dancing in protest on the bonnet of the car carrying anti-Emergency crusader Jayaprakash Narain. Today, the TMC's support for Om Birla's resolution is symbolic of the TMC's intent to assert its own identity, independent of the Congress.

Soon after becoming LoP, Rahul reinstated Sam Pitroda as the chief of the Overseas Congress. BJP spokesman C.R. Kesavan, who had served as a Congress leader till last year, described Pitroda's reappointment as an 'egregious insult ' to those who had been chagrined by his racist remarks two months back. 

Rahul Stares At An Enormous Responsibility

In any case, battle lines have been drawn. The events on January 26 reflect that Narendra Modi knows how to turn the opposition's spin into a boomerang. His comments a day earlier on the Emergency were just a forerunner to the resolution the Lok Sabha adopted; they foregrounded the Congress's many adventures with the Constitution against its loud promises to protect it. 

Rahul, who is taking up a Constitutional position for the first time since becoming an MP in 2004, has to shoulder enormous responsibility. The Congress's 'Nyay Patra' envisages that the Houses of Parliament should meet 100 days a year and that one day a week ought to be devoted to the agenda suggested by the Opposition. To meet these objectives, cooperation, and not confrontation, is imperative. That was not seen today as the bedlam over the demands for a discussion on the NEET row led to the adjournment of Parliament. It is customary to debate a vote of thanks to the President when a session begins. That debate is open; a member can express himself on any issue, including NEET. But it seems that disruption has become the more favourable option over discussion, and thus, the 18th Lok Sabha ended its first week without any debate.

Parliament is a forum for discussion, debate and collective decision-making. Digressing from this ought to be avoided as India celebrates 75 years of being a Republic that acts as a beacon to democracies the world over. 

(Shubhabrata Bhattacharya is a retired editor and a public affairs commentator)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author