Needless confrontation

If by suspending 25 of the 44 Congress members for five days the Lok Sabha Speaker wanted to send a message that she would not allow the party with a diminutive presence to hold the House to ransom, then it seems the move has backfired for her as well as the BJP strategists. The Congress was increasingly getting isolated on its “first-resignations-then-debate” stance. Some of its own leaders like Shashi Throor had questioned the party strategy. Barring the Left, regional parties were distancing themselves from the Congress as daily disruptions stalled law-making. The figures of loss to the exchequer were tossed around and the wisdom of making hefty payments to the MPs for doing no work was questioned. 

By one stroke, however, the Speaker has turned a possible villain into a victim. Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Sitaram Yechury, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar have come out to support Sonia Gandhi as the Congress has reached out to Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and Naveen Patnaik. Even though Mulayam Singh has been reluctant to back the Congress demand for resignations, he cannot afford to be seen as soft towards the BJP ahead of the Bihar elections. The misplaced tough action has thus brought disparate opposition leaders together with parties announcing a Lok Sabha boycott till Friday when the five-day punishment ends. Despite a clear first-ever majority, the BJP's heavy-handed approach has rendered it helpless, while a badly bruised Congress has emerged stronger. 

The rule book, no doubt, permits the Speaker to do what she has done. During UPA rule half a dozen MPs were suspended after repeated disruptions on the Telangana issue. However, the opposition BJP then had agreed to it. Sumitra Mahajan’s action is unilateral and has precipitated an already difficult situation. States have witnessed wholesale suspensions of troublesome opposition legislators but it is rare in Parliament. The Opposition sees this as another example of the Modi government's dictatorial style of functioning and the Gujarat model being replicated at the national level. Coming soon after the failure of the all-party meeting to end the impasse over “Lalitgate” and Vyapam, the suspensions have deepened the government-Opposition rift.