So-called Janata parivar threat more to Congress
The recent overtures by a slew of regional leaders to one another has as much to do with their unsettlement over the continuing electoral success of the Bharatiya Janata Party as it is to the realisation that the Congress has become so pathetically marginalised that it is in no position to halt the BJP’s march. Given the situation, these leaders believe that their coming together, even if in some form of a loose federation, is the only hope to checkmate the BJP. They can call themselves the ‘Janata parivar’ or whatever else, but under any name they nurse the fond hope that their ‘achche din’ of the mid-seventies, when disparate elements got together under the umbrella of what was then called the Janata Party to successfully challenge Indira Gandhi’s political hegemony, is round the corner.
Thus, we have had the recent spectacle of regional satraps such as Mr Nitish Kumar, lalu Prasad, Mr HD Deve Gowda and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav plotting together to offer resistance to the Narendra Modi Government inside and outside Parliament. Incidentally, these leaders without exception bore the brunt of the surge of the BJP in the 2014 lok Sabha election, and are itching for revenge. Individually, they know they are sitting ducks for the ruling party at the Centre, and so they are confident that jointly they can muffle the BJP’s voice, if not silence it.
There is no harm with politicians devising strategies, including striking synergy with ‘like-minded parties’, for their survival. The problem arises when they get it into their head that their one-point agenda of blind opposition to a party or individual is enough glue to hold the combine together. It didn’t happen while combating Indira Gandhi; it will not happen in battling Mr Modi. Moreover, times have changed. Unlike Indira Gandhi, who was then viewed as a dictator with the imposition of Emergency and the resulting clampdown on individual rights, Mr Modi is seen as a decisive leader who can pull the country out of the pit that the 10 years of Congress-led UPA rule had buried it into. Also, identity politics reigned those years, which helped the regional leaders whose very political foundations were cemented by caste and religion, to craft divisive strategies. This is not to say that the Congress was not guilty of the same; it was, but the regional satraps played the game better (as they still try to do).
In addition, while the Janata Party by and large was a coming together of all leaders who opposed Indira Gandhi, the present exercise appears to be only a half-hearted measure. At least three strong regional leaders, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, have yet to demonstrate any inclination to join the exercise. It must be remembered how the so-called Third Front initiative just before the lok Sabha election fizzled almost as soon as it seemed to shape up. Nobody can deny that the essence of a robust democracy lies in the presence of a stable ruling party and a strong Opposition, but the method to stitch together a credible Opposition cannot be premised on the self-misleading belief that abusing in one voice instead of in many is a triumph. Still, if the so-called Janataparivar materialises even partly, the Congress will find itself further demolished.