90 PARLIAMENTARIAN l JULY 2019
BY PARSA VENKATESHWAR RAO JR
LAST WORDComplaining that Prime Minister Modi does not mention Nehru is not
the way to play the role of the main opposition party in Parliamentcongress: dynastic glories
and present crises
C
ON G R E S S PA RT Y has
lost the 2019 Lok Sabha
election decisively, and it
has to reconcile itself to its
diminished status in the two
Houses of Parliament – 52 in the
Lok Sabha and 67 in the Rajya
Sabha. Despite the reduced
numbers, it remains the main
opposition party in both the
Houses. Th erefore, it will have to
take on the much stronger than
in 2014 Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s government. It is a
democratic obligation of the party
to nail the omissions and
commissions of the government.
It cannot give in to despair and
continue to sulk. Modi and the
BJP-led NDA government will
continue to pummel the Congress
in Parliament as they did during the
election campaign earlier this summer.
And it does not require much skill to
attack the Congress. Th e prime minister
and his colleagues have mastered the art.
Modi had indeed shown the way. He
heckled Leader of Opposition and of
Congress in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi
Azad while replying to the debate on the
Motion to Th ank the President for his
Address. He told Azad to go and pay
respects to the Statue of Unity of Sardar
Patel, and to also hold a meeting of the
Congress Working Committee (CWC) at
the site of the statue. Of course, it was not
an unprovoked heckling by the prime
minister. Azad in his speech on the
Motion of Th anks and later Congress’
deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Anand
Sharma, read out the catechism
showcasing what Nehru had done as the
architect of modern India. Modi made fun
of Azad for not embracing his (Modi’s)
‘New India’ and for clinging to the past.
Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha,
Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary too chanted thelitany of Nehru’s deeds in his speech.
Aft er watching the Congress’
performance, it is hard not to infer that
Congress will fail in its role as the main
opposition party, and that its leaders will
not be able to corner the second Modi
government on any issue. Th e Congress
leaders are displaying the fatal fl aw of
recalling the party’s glorious – which was
not always glorious – past, instead of
dealing head on with the present moment.
Congress’ Manish Tiwari speaking on the
bill to extend President’s Rule in Jammu
and Kashmir for six months in the Lok
Sabha recalls how Indira Gandhi broke
Pakistan and created Bangladesh, which
is both an inaccurate and impolitic of
describing the events of 1971, and how it
was the reason for Pakistan abetting
terrorism in Punjab in the 1980s and in
Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s. What
needed to be highlighted was the situation
in Jammu and Kashmir since 2015 when
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-BJP
coalition government was formed in 2015
and how it broke in 2016, and the ham-
handed manner in which the securityforces handled the situation on the
ground, resulting in further
deterioration.
What needed to be highlighted
was that the BJP was trying to play
on the inter-regional rivalry of
Jammu on the one hand and
Kashmir on the other. BJP’s
Poonam Mahajan and Meenakshi
Lekhi, and later Union Home
Minister Amit Shah, who moved
the bill, in his reply had a fi eld day
recalling Nehru’s blunders in
Jammu and Kashmir. Of course, the
BJP leaders had no understanding of
the complicated situation in Jammu
and Kashmir in 1947. Mahajan was
quite polite in her critical reference
to Nehru, but not so Lekhi and Shah.
Th e Modi government did not have
to answer for its ineptitude in dealing with
Jammu and Kashmir in the last fi ve years
because the Congress leaders’ penchant
for recalling their past.
Th e lesson is clear. Th e Congress will
be at the receiving end if its leaders in
Parliament are content to recall the
achievements of Nehru, Indira Gandhi
and Rajiv Gandhi of the 1950s, 1970s and
1980s. It is 30 years since Rajiv Gandhi,
the last of the Nehru-Gandhis, was the
prime minister. What the people want the
Congress as the main opposition in
Parliament to do in 2019 is to keep a
hawk’s eye on the foibles – and there are
plenty of them – of the second
Modi government. Outgoing party
president Rahul Gandhi has shown how
to do it. In his heartfelt four-page
resignation letter, he pointed to the issue
of preserving the sanctity of constitutional
institutions and of relentlessly fi ghting the
divisive ideology of the RSS-BJP. It is an
ideological war and there is a need to fi ght
it with full vigour.The lesson is clear. The congress will
Be aT The receiving end if iTs leaders in
parliamenT are conTenT To recall The
achievemenTs of nehru, indira gandhi and
rajiv gandhi of The 1950s, 1970s and 1980s