On Sunday, the Indian Nationwide Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) events held a powerful ‘Loktantra Bachao’ (Save Democracy) rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. It offered no narrative to counter the Modi authorities’s insurance policies, nor was an alternate agenda placed on the desk. As a substitute, what was obvious was a ‘sufferer’ mindset, buttressed by allegations of being focused by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) dispensation.
‘Match-Fixing’ Allegations
The equity of the 18th common election was challenged too. Rahul Gandhi acknowledged that Modi, with the assistance of central businesses and “4 capitalists”, was indulging in ‘match-fixing’ by arresting leaders like Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal. The truth that it was the Congress that had first accused the Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP) authorities in Delhi of facilitating a liquor rip-off – in reference to which Kejriwal is behind bars right this moment – was simply papered over. The bonhomie between the AAP and the Congress management at this rally maybe underscores the extent of the latter’s plummeting fortunes.
On January 25, Sam Pitroda, the Congress’s abroad chief, held a digital press convention to query the equity of Digital Voting Machines (EVMs). Through the presser, nevertheless, he skirted a query on the victory of his occasion in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana polls, the place the identical EVMs had been used. Additionally, following Kejriwal’s arrest, the US, Germany and even the United Nations have questioned India’s equity. Clearly, Rahul Gandhi’s frequent journeys abroad are paying off.
Ironies Abound
The rally at Ramlila Maidan was the third such occasion held by the INDIA bloc. On March 3, they organised a mammoth ‘Jan Chetna Rally’ in Patna, and a fortnight in a while March 17, the events congregated in Mumbai to mark the fruits of Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. A formidable rally was held in Kolkata too on March 10, nevertheless it noticed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) suo motu announce names for all 42 seats within the state. The TMC had stayed away from Rahul’s Mumbai rally, and no bloc companions had been invited by the occasion in Kolkata, whose spokesman Derek O’Brien declared at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday that “Trinamool was and is with the INDIA bloc”.
The Ramlila Maidan was the venue of Anna Hazare’s India In opposition to Corruption (IAC) motion in 2011, which took on the then-Congress-led Central authorities. The Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP), which was an offshoot of the IAC, noticed the emergence of Kejriwal as an anti-corruption crusader. That the identical venue on Sunday noticed a rally to protest in opposition to his incarceration in a corruption case is ironic.
100 kilometres away in Meerut, Narendra Modi, flanked by the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh alliance companions, together with newcomer Jayant Choudhury of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), launched his 2024 marketing campaign on the plank of preventing corruption and making certain vikas (growth). The distinction between the BJP’s agenda and that of its opponent is stark. Negativity continues to drive the Opposition, whereas Modi promotes his authorities’s achievements and initiatives them as a “trailer” of issues to come back.
Mamata Maintains Distance
The Ramlila Maidan rally was attended by Sonia Gandhi, who because of unwell well being hardly ever makes public appearances now. Accompanied by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra, she sat beside Sunita Kejriwal and Kalpana Soren, wives of the jailed Delhi and Jharkhand chief ministers. Two empty chairs had been symbolically positioned on the dais for Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren. Two different chief ministers, Mamata Banerjee and M.Okay. Stalin, had been absent from the stage. No empty chairs had been positioned of their honour. They had been represented by their respective MPs. Mamata most well-liked to be in Krishnanagar on Sunday to marketing campaign for Mohua Moitra, her occasion’s candidate who misplaced her membership within the seventeenth Lok Sabha because of a cash-for-query case. Notably, this was Mamata’s first public look in a fortnight after she suffered a head harm at residence.
Mamata empathised with Kejriwal after his arrest. Nonetheless, neither she nor her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, common secretary of her occasion who had been lively in bloc conferences, discovered it price their whereas to be on the Ramlila Maidan rally. Derek O’Brien and a brand new MP, Sagarika Ghose, represented Trinamool.
By declaring candidates for all 42 seats in Bengal, the TMC in impact sounded the loss of life knell of the bloc within the state. At Krishnanagar, Mamata mentioned, “There may be an INDIA alliance within the nation. Actually, I had given the title for the alliance (sic). As soon as the election is over, I shall look into it. However there isn’t a bloc with CPI (M) (Communist Get together of India-Marxist) and Congress in Bengal.” In Bangla, she described the alliance as a ‘ghont‘ (confusion) and never a ‘jote‘ (alliance).
Inner Fissures
Mamata’s assertion is an trustworthy one. Her candour was not shared by different events current on the Ramlila Maidan dais. The CPI has put up a candidate in opposition to Rahul Gandhi in Kerala’s Wayanad. In Bihar, it refused to accommodate the Congress’s star campaigner and youth icon Kanhaiya Kumar from Begusarai; the RJD finally acquiesced and allotted the seat to the CPI. In Purnea, too, the RJD confirmed the thumb to the Congress by turning down the candidature of Pappu Yadav, who not too long ago merged his occasion with the Congress, and nominating a latest defector to the RJD. In Maharashtra, the Congress state unit is considering ‘pleasant fights’ in 5 seats, miffed by the result of alliance talks.
The INDIA bloc has many fissures on the bottom. Apart from Mamata, nevertheless, others favor hypocrisy to cowl these clefts.
A Disaster That Might’ve Been Averted?
Soren and Kejriwal’s arrests have invited no censure from courts. Kejriwal averted 9 summonses since November. Had he confirmed up ab initio, then by now he maybe would have been free to steer his occasion within the elections. The day he was arrested, the Delhi Excessive Court docket refused to grant him safety from arrest. His legal professionals didn’t method the Supreme Court docket instantly. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in flip, seized the window supplied by the courtroom’s refusal and moved in. Kejriwal had time since November to organize his narrative. However the day he was arrested, he and his occasion didn’t have a technique prepared for the eventuality.
The Congress too is pissed off due to the revenue tax notices and seizure of its funds by tax authorities, who’re appearing on courtroom orders in issues pending since 1994. Lethargy and incoherence of Congress managers are liable for the present disaster.
The Feeble Response To The Arrests
It wasn’t as if AAP staff closed down the markets or introduced transport to a standstill in protest in opposition to Kejriwal’s arrest. It led to little uproar. The few a whole bunch who demonstrated had been detained, taken to distant locations, and let off. Life went as normal in Delhi. In international locations overseas, together with in neighbouring Sri Lanka and Pakistan, mass protests are organised to mark public angst. India’s opposition, in the meantime, limits itself to posting on X, holding 200-metre-long marches within the neighborhood of Parliament, and typically congregating on the Ramlila Maidan.
United motion will not be a simple endeavor for the INDIA bloc. All speak of one-on-one fights in opposition to the BJP in 400 seats has fizzled out. The BJP and its allies have finalised virtually all the checklist of candidates. The INDIA alliance, in the meantime, remains to be grappling with inner bickering and bargaining.
(Shubhabrata Bhattacharya is a retired editor and public affairs commentator)
Disclaimer: These are the private opinions of the creator.
