Where is the Opposition?

There is a pandemic, a threat from at least three of our neighbours on our borders, a faltering economy. In times like this, how should an Opposition react? Should it be supportive at the risk of being complicit, or should it be critical at the risk of being labelled anti-national? All interesting questions, but somehow I don’t think this is a debate that did the rounds within the Congress. The party’s response on both Covid and China seems to be more of a shoot-and-tell one rather than a thought-out approach.

Sure, Rahul Gandhi in his bid for a comeback as party chief has been taking on the government for lapses that allowed Chinese incursions on the LAC. In a somewhat school boyish tweet he referred to the PM as “Surrender Modi”. Later, when Modi visited Leh for a morale boosting trip, Rahul released a video quoting various citizens of Ladakh who claimed that the Chinese have invaded Indian land. While all this is very glib and gets the eyeballs, what does it say about Rahul’s own leadership skills? A more serious approach could have been for Rahul to talk about the Congress party’s own track record — for if there was 1962, there was also a 1971 at our borders — and put his own grandmother’s track record versus that of Modi. While Rahul did not do this, another Congress leader Manish Tewari did. Tiwari tweeted that after Mrs Indira Gandhi “visited Leh she divided Pakistan into two. Let’s see what he (Modi) does.” Doesn’t this send out a politically more powerful message than Rahul Gandhi getting into a “My Video Vs Your Video” war with the BJP’s Sambit Patra?

 Interestingly, we are told that at a Congress Working Committee meet recently w h e n o n e o f R a h u l ’ s colleagues from the GenNext, R.P.N. Singh, commented that the Congress response on China should be more calibrated instead of simply attacking the PM, he was met with an outburst from Rahul who complained that no one attacked Modi except him. In this he was supported by key players of Team Rahul, including Sushmita Dev, Rajeev Satav and Randeep Surejewala. However, there were others who did not join this chorus. The silence of the Old Guard should be noted. As should NCP leader Sharad Pawar›s implied rebuke to the Congress leader for his reaction to the Chinese incursion. In fact, apart from Rahul Gandhi, has any other Opposition leader taken potshots at the PM on the LAC lapse? Even Mamata Bannerjee has decided to wait and watch. Ditto for Arvind Kejriwal, Uddhav Thackeray, Mayawati, Stalin, Naveen Patnaik, Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav.

Even during Covid when there have been lapses on the government’s part — from the handling of the migrants to the timing of the lockdown — the Opposition has not come out as a more viable alternative. While Rahul played television anchor, his ally Tejashwi was conspicuous by his absence during the entire mishandling of the migrant workers crisis by the BJP ally, Nitish Kumar. Akhilesh and Mayawati too were missing — in fact as far as UP is concerned credit goes to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for attempting to provide a constructive opposition with her bus politics.

When will the Opposition get its act together?