Opposition Dinner – Just A Splash Or Can It Create A Ripple Effect

There was yet another splash in the Opposition pool this week with leaders of different parties deciding to break bread together. As the saying goes, when two politicians meet it is obvious they do not discuss the weather. While the national capital found relief from humid weather conditions, the dinner meeting by former Union Minister and Congress MP Kapil Sibal provided an opportunity for the assembly to emit signals of the opposition seeking to ferret common ground after exhibiting unity creating a deadlock in the monsoon session of Parliament.

The basic ingredient that brought together leaders of various parties in the Opposition is that the majority stand diametrically against the Bharatiya Janata Party. The presence of few others can be explained as of those whose interests do not clash with the Congress.

One can see the meeting from two different prisms. One, a simplistic interpretation of it as a response of fellow MPs and leaders of parties other than those in the BJP-led alliance to an invitation from a senior parliamentarian on his birthday. It is a perfect social reason for the invitees of different hues to descend at the residence of Kapil Sibal and partake in the celebration. Almost the entire spectrum of leaders in the opposition including those from the Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal whose presence this seek was conspicuous since these parties were not at the breakfast meeting of Rahul Gandhi earlier this month.

The second is more political in nature. The phalanx of leaders demonstrated they were closing ranks against an all-powerful opponent in the BJP on issues sending a message of ‘let us do something’ to check the “attack on constitutional values”.

The absence of Congress central leadership in the Gandhis or many from the establishment re-ignited talk of the G-23, the Group of over two score leaders who wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi urging immediate action on organisational front. The party now awaits internal elections including to the post of Congress president.

From all accounts, the assembly made a common cause, setting sights of making a difference by the time the electorate of the country speaks in 2024. In the run-up to it, next year’s assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh offer a great chance to test political waters. While many leaders at the dinner held a view that the Congress needs to set its house in order, one leader spoke plainly that the Grand Old Party should get free from control by dynasts while another reiterated any alternative would not be viable with the Congress.

With the BJP working on a plan to gallop to a second term in the politically crucial UP, the Congress challenge exists in far fewer states that go to the polls between now and the summer of 2024. Barring Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the Grand Old Party is not in the zone of contention to assume reins of governance in states like Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana or even the city-state like Delhi.

Over the past two years, the Opposition as a whole remained listless, unable to mount any credible campaign against the BJP or stick any issue on its government, either at the Centre or in the States.

Will the dinner act as a catalyst for other political parties opposed to the BJP to rally around? Can it co-exist with similar moves by the Congress central leadership amid indications that a majority of party members want Rahul Gandhi to assume party president’s post once again?

Some decades ago when Congress under Rajiv Gandhi led the Government, several leaders from various parties held conclaves at different states with the likes of N T Rama Rao, Farooq Abdullah and others. Taking initiative, Left leaders like Harkishan Singh Surjeet and A B Bardhan of CPI played an important role to bring different parties opposed to the Congress on one platform.

The venue 8, Teen Murti Lane, was once occupied by CPI (M) general secretary Surjeet and added spice to the dinner. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the veteran Marxist leader was considered an architect of the Third Front in Indian politics. Yet while there were a number of meetings at the place during his occupancy, keeping in line with the Spartan ways of the Marxist leader’s living, the servings were largely restricted to tea.

It was also the venue where the Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav walked out in disagreement in 2002 as the Left sought the nascent Peoples Front to support Lakshmi Sahgal’s candidature against the BJP-led coalition’s A P J Abdul Kalam in the presidential elections that year.

Of course, dinner meetings by CPI (M) Parliamentary Party leader Somnath Chatterjee at his Ashoka Road residence paved the way for greater unity among opposition parties during the NDA-government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee. The bonding over food and common causes eventually resulted in the formation of the United Progressive Alliance. Will the current experiment create ripples to disturb the existing arrangement?

— KV Prasad is a senior journalist and has earlier worked with The Hindu and The Tribune. The views expressed are personal.

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)