oppn parties The Opposition: When Will They Unite?

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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oppn parties
The Opposition: When Will They Unite?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-03-06 07:33:18

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

Leaders of eight opposition parties have written to Prime Minister Modi about former deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia's arrest by the CBI in the Delhi liquor policy case. They have called it "blatant misuse" of Central agencies and have termed his arrest "political witch hunt". The signatories to the letter were AAP supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Telangana chief minister and BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, NC leader Farooq Abdullah, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray. Among the major opposition parties, the Congress, the DMK and the JD (U) did not sign the letter. The letter also reminds the Prime Minister that once Central agencies move against opposition leaders, the charges are either dropped or the case is put on the backburner the moment they decide to join the BJP. It is believed that KCR took the lead in sending the letter. KCR's daughter K Kavitha has also been named in the Enforcement Directorate's chargesheet in the Delhi liquor policy case.

The letter initiative shows how, despite all parties being against the BJP for misusing Central agencies, they are not united for the cause. The Congress has, since the time Sisodia was arrested, not criticized his arrest even once. The AAP was severe in its criticism of the Congress for not joining the others in protesting against Sisodia's arrest. AAP spokesman said that the "Congress which considers itself as the big brother and says it will lead if any opposition alliance is formed, should have reached out to the opposition parties". But the Congress has claimed that nobody approached it to be one of the signatories to the letter. Whatever be the reason, the episode once again shows that despite the urgent need for unity and their individual grouses against the BJP, the opposition parties are not on the same page on all issues. Some of them band together on some issues while some others do so on some other issues. This is working against opposition unity.