It seems that the opposition has become so desperate due to its exile from political power at the that it has now lost all contact with ground realities, and has started daydreaming in its attempts to dislodge the present government. According to a recent news report by the Republic TV, the opposition is planning a mass resignation of the members of Parliament (MPs) in order to pressurize the current dispensation and compel the government to go in for early general elections.
According to the news report, the opposition has set an overambitious target of over 100 resignations across several opposition parties. The object of staging en masse resignations is to evoke public sympathy and push the malicious and make believe agenda of social discord as well as other issues such as special category status for Andhra Pradesh, and attempt to impeach the sitting Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. If sources of the news outlet are to be believed, the Congress is not alone in this foolhardy attempt. The Congress is working on the plan along with the Sharad Pawar led NCP and the Chandrababu Naidu led TDP. Interestingly, Chandrababu Naidu had also held meetings with Sharad Pawar and several Congress leaders on his two day visit to Delhi.
As per the unnamed sources of Republic TV, the opposition is trying to corner the BJP on several issues which the opposition believes constitute an anti-Modi wave. The idea is to manipulate the Supreme Court ruling on the SC/ ST Act and shift the blame on the Centre for the judicial pronouncement. They are also trying to create unrest by raking up issues such as special category status for Andhra Pradesh and the Cauvery water dispute. Another reason given for chalking out such a strategy is to escape the public anger for continuously disrupting Parliament and creating unnecessary ruckus. The ultimate object of the mischievous plan is to showcase opposition unity and lay down a launch pad for creating a false narrative in the run up to the general elections next year, which are being constantly predicted as an “all versus Modi” contest. However, in view of the recent cracks that seem to be appearing in the grand anti-Modi alliance, it must have appeared necessary to the Congress to save the sinking ship by staging some kind of extraordinary protest.
It appears that the opposition is taking this suicidal move quite seriously even as 5 YSR Congress MPs submitted their resignation before the Lok Sabha yesterday. YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy had threatened that his MPs would resign on the last day of the budget session over the special status controversy. Accordingly, the YSR Congress MPs resigned yesterday. Jaganmohan Reddy also posted a tweet in which he challenged Chandrababu Naidu to follow suit and sacrifice his MPs over the issue of special category status for Andhra Pradesh.
We do as we say! YSRCP MPs are submitting their resignations today. I challenge @ncbn to make TDP MPs resign and stand united with the people of AP in their rightful demand of special category status for Andhra Pradesh.
— YS Jagan Mohan Reddy (@ysjagan) April 6, 2018
Therefore, this overambitious plan has allegedly started already with resignations by the YSR Congress, but the TDP is yet to show considerable enthusiasm at the ground level. The opposition seems to have lost touch with ground realities due to its frustration emanating from a string of electoral and political defeats. It has been unable to stop the BJP juggernaut by impressing the electorate, and therefore it is now resorting to below-the-belt attacks on the BJP. There seems to be a tendency of recreating the atmosphere that the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had faced in 1989, leading to his trounce in the general elections. However, the opposition does not have the kind of unity that it had in 1989 and the public acrimony against the then prime minister does not exist today. In fact, the idea of a grand alliance is also just a figment of imagination. CPM and TMC have already been involved in verbal duels with the government and have virtually pulled out of any seat sharing arrangement with the Congress. The opposition seems to be daydreaming for it not only lacks inter-party unity but most of them are not able to keep even their own cadres united. There have been a number of resignations even at the top level of opposition parties disillusioned by their obnoxious policies. It is not possible for the opposition parties to garner much support from their own MPs itself, let alone the idea of dislodging the government in a fashion similar to the dislodging Rajiv Gandhi in 1989.
Even if some MPs were to resign (the execution of such a plan would in all probability be a flop falling much below the opposition target), it will not cause much damage to the image of the government. After all, the opposition has been making several attempts to malign the government’s image since 2014, but all in vain. The electorate seems satisfied with the functioning of the government and it can thus be predicted that this naïve attempt will also be a major failure.