Modi's come across as the winner in Parliament logjam, Congress the loser
After the Lok Sabha got adjourned for the day on December 8, BJP veteran LK Advani sat ruminating on his seat alone in the House for a good 15 minutes before he finally trudged his way out.
Just the previous day, the BJP patriarch had lost his cool briefly when he put the onus on running the House on Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar after an adjournment.
The same day, President Pranab Mukherjee expressed his exasperation at the logjam in parliamentary proceedings in both Houses and sought to fix the blame more on the Opposition than the ruling alliance with his comment that Parliament wasn’t the place to stage a “dharna” or hold demonstrations.
Both Mukherjee and Advani go back a long way as parliamentarians and both were incidentally the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, respectively, in 1980.
And it wasn’t surprising that Mukherjee and Advani were bipartisan in their utterances. Being part of an earlier era, when such scenes of disruptions would be virtually unheard of, the bedlam in the last few days must have distressed the duo deeply.
The Winter session has been scheduled from November 16 to December 16 with 22 working days. But 16 of the 18 days till this weekend have been completely washed out. This session was all the more crucial in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation announcement on November 8 and the resultant chaos across the country.
After a debate got underway on the first day, a week of disruptions followed. One finally hoped to hear a full-fledged debate in the Rajya Sabha when a discussion was initiated on November 24. Former PM Manmohan Singh made an immediate impact with a seven-minute intervention that was clinical yet hard-hitting.
The Treasury benches seemed visibly shaken and stirred and Modi chose not to return post-interval - which resulted in yet another adjournment after a debate that spanned 50 minutes.
My aim is not to ascertain who is to blame for the current impasse as much as who benefits from this logjam this session.
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| BJP patriarch LK Advani recently lost his cool in Parliament. (Photo: India Today) |
While the Opposition had a legitimate demand that the PM speak on the noteban issue, even after assurances were given that he would, the Opposition hasn’t relented. The goalposts have been shifted thereafter and Arun Jaitley’s argument of disruption being a legitimate parliamentary tool has since been flung back at the government.
It seems the Opposition has been derailed from within due to lack of unity and consensus among parties and the inability to devise a collective strategy. It was Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress who was the first to react to the demonetisation move, even as the other parties were making up their minds on the response.
The Congress initially chose to support the government on the noteban drive with caveats, but has since recalibrated its strategy to make its opposition clear. Despite the opening provided by Manmohan Singh himself, the party has failed to spread the message across the nook and corner of the country.
That there is no village in the country where you won’t find a Congressman - is a standard argument dished out by most Congress supporters when they are asked to comment on their losing streak. This is their rationale on why they are still the pre-eminent party in the country and why they would make a comeback sooner than later.
But what has the party done to communicate its stand on demonetisation across the country, apart from disrupting the Parliament?
This lack of imagination and prowess is usually laid at Rahul Gandhi’s door by commentators. It has to be admitted that he is more visible and vociferous in Delhi this Parliament session. Having been restricted to the four walls of Parliament as it is in session, there has been no visible strategy to utilise the platform or to dominate the airwaves.
More importantly, apart from a one-liner here or there, there has been nothing that has occupied some mindspace.
Author of 24, Akbar Road, Rasheed Kidwai, attributes the blame in part to the current command structure of the Congress as Sonia Gandhi is no more a hands-on president while Rahul hasn’t formally taken over.
In sharp contrast, Modi hasn’t been restricted by the Parliament disruptions as he is seen campaigning in various parts of the country and communicating his views directly to the people. The speeches are well-calculated and precise but delivered in the common man’s language.
Moreover, he uses his Mann ki baat platform to influence public opinion. The government propaganda machinery has done its job well despite having their backs to the wall on the issue of demonetisation.
The Congress, on the other hand, hasn’t been able to articulate clearly to the common man if it is against demonetisation or not. There is a communication gap as it is not explicit to the people whether the party is opposed to the policy or implementation or both, and the reasons for the opposition. In such a scenario, Modi’s voice keeps reverberating across the airwaves.
It looks as if the Congress has forgotten the impact of grassroots communication and has instead gone on an overdrive online, trying to emulate urban-centric parties like the AAP. Other opposition parties too have not fared differently, despite the call for a Bharat Bandh and its variations on November 28.
Mamata's aggressive attempts to dominate the discourse with conspiracy theories of a coup and sabotage in the air have also not gone down well with the public.
Many people have wondered why there has been no social unrest across the country post November 8 despite the obvious distress and more than a 100 deaths. The government has cleverly managed to spin the debate towards a moral sense of duty to the nation and the common man seems to have bought the argument despite all difficulties.
The resilience of Indians is unparalleled as they move from famines and floods in successive years under a system that lets them down consistently. But when this disaster of a policy has been sold to them as their chance to participate in nation-building, they are more than happy to do their bit.
The common man has also been led to believe that the rich man has taken a bigger hit, despite raids unearthing black money in new currency to the tune of Rs 200 crore across the country.
It is not yet clear whether the remaining three days of the Winter session would see some debate or be completely washed out like the Winter session of 2010, when the 2G scandal had broken out. Unlike then, it would now entirely be the Opposition’s loss, with the Congress being the biggest-loser.