Congress mustn’t behave like a petulant child
lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's refusal to recognise the Congress as the leader of Opposition brings the curtain down on one part of this episode but opens the possibility of another chapter being soon written. The Congress, which had been using various tactics to bag the prestigious position despite not having qualified for it, has the option of seeking legal redressal to its grievance. Senior party leaders have been hinting for some time now — and more so when it had become evident that the Speaker would go strictly by the existing rules — that the party could take the legal route. They contend that the rule, which requires a party to have at least 10 per cent of the total strength of the lok Sabha to be recognised as the leader of Opposition, is not the law. The law, they claim, was laid down in 1977, which supersedes the rules. This position has in turn been contested by legal experts who point out that the law in question does not lay down the definition of the leader of Opposition, and that the rule still reigns supreme. Whatever, if the party or somebody else goes to the court, the various positions will be legally tested. For now, the Congress has to be satisfied with being the single largest party in the Opposition, but not the leader of Opposition. Congress leaders have been claiming that they were not hankering for the position but merely demanding their right. The fact is that they had gone overboard in seeking it, cajoling the Speaker to see their point of view and later accusing her of bias. They targeted her for even the routine decision to seek counsel of the Attorney General of India on the matter, saying that the Attorney General's opinion would reflect that of the Union Government, whereas the Speaker should apply her mind in an independent manner. Realising that the existing rules go against it, the Congress proposed that the rules must be seen as convention and not something written on stone. In other words, the Speaker should use her discretion and be flexible. That clearly is something Ms Mahajan did not wish to do. She has gone by the rulebook, although she has been flexible enough to say that it is up to the MPs to decide on relaxing the rules. She has offered a window of hope for the Congress, but it remains to be seen if something comes out of it.
Even precedents have gone against the Congress's position, and Ms Mahajan was quick to point this out in her communication to the party while rejecting its claim. There had been no leader of Opposition in 1980 and 1984, well after the law that the Congress is now so vehemently quoting in its favour came into effect. In both the instances, the Congress was in power at the Centre with a massive mandate, but it never thought of extending the leader of Opposition status to the single larget party in the lower House. In once instance, it had turned down the plea of a political party to be recognised as the leader of Opposition, citing the very same rules. The Congress must now stop behaving like a petulant child.