As political temperature rises, govt may face fresh Oppn onslaught

KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 19

Three major political events in Delhi today — a BJP workshop for its lawmakers, a Congress rally for farmers and the CPM electing new general secretary — a day before the crucial Budget session of Parliament resumes indicate gathering clouds of a political storm in the making.

The parties representing the Centre, Left and the Right held events that are bound to raise political temperature in the country. Add to this the recent move to have a re-united Janata Parivar.

While passage of the Finance Bill remains the top priority of the Modi government, its insistence of pushing through the land acquisition Bill provides immediate cause for the opposition, to close ranks.

Under intense attack from its opponents, the ruling BJP found it necessary to hold a workshop here for the benefit of its MPs on what the Modi government achieved in the past 11 months. The PM himself did the inaugural honours at the GMC Balayogi auditorium in the Parliament Library building.

Hours later and a few kilometres away, the BJP came under severe attack from the Congress top leadership at Ramlila ground for aggressively pursuing “anti-farmer” and “pro-rich” policies.

A few thousand kilometers away in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) effected a change of leadership electing Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury as its new general secretary, signaling possible pursuit of pragmatic politics after years of dogmatic pursuance.

All it requires is to take a step back and see a larger picture emerging which when juxtaposed against the recent move by socialist parties to regroup as the Janata Parivar, delineates contours of new alignments on the national political landscape with a common political opponent — the BJP.

The PM took it upon himself to counter the charge that his government was not doing enough for the poor, citing social welfare schemes for girl child and cleanliness drive as those targeting a better life for the weaker sections.

By reeling off statistics to back his claim that change was indeed occurring and mentioning of adulations from the World Bank and the US President, Modi sought to remind the captive audience that while everyone in the world was appreciative of work being done by his government, opposition was creating a bogey and a perception to the contrary.

Sensing an opportunity to pillory the government on the controversial land acquisition ordinance, the Congress show in solidarity with farmers was also an occasion to announce the return of rejuvenated vice-president Rahul Gandhi from a two-month sabbatical.

Congress’ aggressiveness may not match the oratorical skills of Modi, yet party leaders stuck to one dominant theme — farmers would lose their land against their will to favour the corporate friends of the BJP. No wonder, the BJP lost little time in joining issue through Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Under Yechury, who learnt the fine art of political negotiations and realpolitik from veteran Marxist Harkishan Singh Surjeet, and commonality of political opponent, with the Congress and the Janata, in the BJP suggests that it may no longer be “acchhe din” for the ruling coalition from now on.