Jane DoeIn a democratic country like India, opposition has a very pivotal role to play. It is true that when BJP came into power the skew was so huge that no party had the the mandate to even sit in the opposition with majority. Opposition holds the responsibility to hold the the government accountable for all its decisions. It is vested with the responsibility to voice the concern of the minority whose voices may go unheard under the strong power of the majority. Most people think Congress is the leading opposition party but it is not true. With just 44 seats win in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections; Congress is the not the lead opposition. It is just one of the many small opposition parties.
Having said that Congress still lives in olden times forgetting it does not have the seats to be a lead opposition and does not have the exclusive power to question government policies.
What implication the opposition has in Indian political scene?
Precisely, the opposition is the ombudsman of the system in the Indian democracy. In a multi-party system like India, the opposition creates political awareness among the common people. After all, a strong opposition is the sign of good governance. But sometimes the reverse is as likely when the just for the sake of opposing, the opposition questions the right agendas of the government.
How potent is Congress as an opposition?
Not long ago the nation opined against dynastic politics. As a result Congress had to give up on power. Not only they were vociferous in criticizing the Modi government since then, but also had hipster cool ways to ridicule their slogans. For instance, BJP’s agenda “Sabka sath, sabka vikas” was changed into “Sabka sath, kuch ka vikas”. Time and again, Rahul Gandhi spoke at length about the government’s shortcomings in his public appearances.
Sushma Swaraj, the then leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha once said “not allowing Parliament to function is also a form of democracy, like any other form”. It evoked some serious laughter though. But Arun Jaitley trended for all the right reasons. He made a point telling opposition’s role is to expose the government through parliamentary instructions laid at its command. Now the table’s turned, Congress is sure going great guns to oppose the government. No matter how unfairly Jaitley dub them as “obstructionist”, contrary to his own statement.
Very recently, Congress chanced upon maligning the ruling party over the JNU and Rohit Vemula issues. In the same fashion they brought ‘Make in India’ and MNREGA into question. Modi called this a brazen repercussion of ‘inferiority complex’ in his Lok Sabha speech. Undaunted by the same, Congress continued to lock horns with BJP over GST bill for the longest time. However the continuous efforts of Arun Jaitley and other eminent leaders of BJP, in a historic win the GST bill was passed in Rajya Sabha last month.
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Modi had sought the benefit of their experience in developing India some more. Nonetheless, the Congress party seems to have internalized one thing, Opposition’s role is just to OPPOSE!
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