oppn parties Opposition Parties: Missing The Opportunity

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  • India will fast-track deployment of 52 defence surveillance satellites
  • In a first, Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai helps patients draw up living will
  • Calcutta HC says that an arrest warrant cannot be issued against an accused who is on anticipatory bail, and if that person is arrested, he or she must be released as per the conditions of the anticipatory bail
  • Monsoon covers entire India 9 days ahead of schedule
  • Maharashtra government scraps order making Hindi the 3rd language in state schools after protests by civil society and opposition
  • A government report says that 64.3% of the population is now under the social security net, up from only 22% in 2016
  • The finance ministry has asked PSB to look at ways to monetise their investment in subsidiaries, by listing them on the stock exchanges
  • After auditor flags overlimit expenses, Karnataka Bank MD & CEO S Hari Hara Sarma and ED Sekhar Rao resign
  • Rosneft likely to sell its stake in Nayara Energy to RIL
  • Ola junks commission-based income model, opts for a daily flat fee from drivers with the hope of attracting more drivers to its platform
  • Torrent Pharma will acquire a controlling stake in JB Chem for Rs 18000cr by buying 46.4% from US fund KKR and another 26% from the public by making an open offer
  • Speculation persists over Jasprit Bumrah making the playing 11 in the second Test against England starting July 2
  • FIH Pro hockey: Indian women slump to their 8th successive loss as they lose to China 2-3
  • US Open BWF Super 300 badminaton: Ayush Shetty wins his first BWF world title by beating Canadian Brian Young 21-18,21-13 but Tanvi Sharma lost in the finals to Beiwwwan Zhang 11-21, 21-16, 10-21
  • R Praggananda wins Tashkent meet, become number 1 chess player in India with FIDE rating of 2799
The SIT formed to probe law college gang-rape in Kolkata has collected the hockey stick used to hit the victim and other rape evidence from the coolege campus /////// Rath Yatra stampede in Puri kills 3
oppn parties
Opposition Parties: Missing The Opportunity

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2016-12-28 09:16:13

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
Photo credit: Manas Ranjan Bhui

Although a lot of fireworks were provided by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee at the press conference called by a ‘united’ opposition in New Delhi to rant against demonetization and Narendra Modi, it is clear from the attendance that apart from Rahul and Mamata, no other big leader is willing to throw his hat in the ring as of now. Mamata once again repeated her charge that Modi is working like Gabbar from the iconic film Sholay to scare people. By now, one is surprised why the film’s producers are not asking didi for royalty for using the name of the famous character from their film. She even coined a few punch words of her own to call the Modi government “faceless” and “baseless”. Still, she continued bashing the most prominent face of a supposedly “faceless” government. Rahul, on the other hand, concentrated more on the failed earthquake, repeating his unsubstantiated charges against Modi based on the Sahara and Birla diaries.

With Modi having announced that further moves are in the pipeline against the corrupt, parties like SP, JD (U), CPM and NCP seem to have adopted a wait and watch policy. They also do not want to give unnecessary prominence to Rahul. Further, they are cut up as the Congress wants to run the show alone. Most parties alleged that they were not consulted and were not even told about the agenda of the meeting. That the SP chose to skip the event, despite thinking of tying up with the Congress for the UP elections, speaks a lot about how Rahul is going about getting the opposition together against Modi. His weak defence that opposition unity is a continuous process and some parties have local compulsions does not cut much ice as just a few weeks ago they were all together and raised hell in parliament. It was the unilateral move of the Congress to meet Modi alone that triggered the breakaway moves of these parties. Being the largest opposition party with pan-India infrastructure, the Congress needs to be more responsible in its dealings with smaller regional parties.

If the opposition has any intention of putting Modi in any sort of prolonged discomfort, it needs to get its act together. Wasting parliament’s time and not allowing it to function is counter-productive as it harms the nation. They have to think of other ways to corner the government. For, despite the continued hardships faced by the people and the combined efforts of the opposition, the people have not risen against demonetization. If Mamata, for instance, had continued to spit such venom on any other topic, one is sure that some people in Bengal would have caused havoc. If it did not happen in the case of demonetization, then obviously there is huge disconnect between the opposition parties and the people. Hence, the opposition parties needs to reflect whether they are raising people’s concerns about demonetization or just criticizing the government because it suits them. The Opposition parties are missing a huge opportunity by digressing from the core issues.