Yashwant’s political manch

THE duo of intellectuals from the BJP camp, Arun Shourie (“NDA is UPA plus cow”) and Yashwant Sinha (“I need to speak up now”), have kept aloft the flag of informed dissent when the open spaces of freedom and free speech have considerably shrunk. Yashwant Sinha, the more political of the duo, has taken forward his disagreement with PM Modi on upholding of democratic values and safeguarding the sanctity of democratic institutions. The star cast of those who turned up at the launch of Rashtra Manch was from two distinct streams: one, those who felt marginalised in their parties (Trinamool’s Dinesh Trivedi, BJP’s Suresh Mehta and Shatrughan Sinha and Pawan Verma from JD-U); and second, those interested in seeing the back of this government (Renuka Chowdhury from Congress, NCP’s Majeed Memon and Sanjay Singh of AAP).

The trajectory of this manch is clear, much as Yashwant Sinha might want to draw a distinction between a political action group and a political party: the Modi government will come under systemic fire and scrutiny from the two Sinhas, Yashwant and Shatrughan, both familiar with the workings of the levers of power in an NDA arrangement. Yashwant Sinha, in particular, hits where it hurts. His voice of reason would be a welcome antidote to the belligerent and mechanical application of majoritarian politics that now threatens to spill out of the bounds of constitutionally permitted actions. Sinha at the launch drew attention to one such aberration: the glaring curtailment of parliamentary sitting; the first leg of the Budget session would effectively have only four working days, something that is unprecedented.

The other Sinha, Shatrughan, has articulated the rationality for such a forum: he and some others like him have not been permitted to express their views in their party fora. There is considerable scope for course correction because the totalising claims of the present dispensation have led to political and structural threats to the civil society. The impact of this ginger group on public policy remains to be seen but any move that questions the practices and tenets of totalitarianism policies ought to be applauded.