Much had been written about Narendra Modi’s first 100 days in office, a milestone - if you want to call it so - that passed earlier this month. And most of it, even from his diehard critics who include some senior journalists who firmly believe that “a leopard cannot change its spots”, has painted the Modi rule so far in positive shades.
When a government is elected for full five years - or 1,826 days, including the extra day for the Leap Year - judging it from a mere 100 days can turn into a travesty. But the practice is of some vintage, apparently initiated by President Franklin D Roosevelt to mark the 100 days of the 73rd US Congress, and it has somehow found its way into the Indian political psyche and stayed there as a convenient tool to heap praise or opprobrium depending on which side of the fence you are on.
So everything from Modi’s first act of inviting Saarc heads of state for the swearing ceremony to how many ‘bandgala’ suits and ‘Modi kurtas’ he changed during his recent Japan visit were part of the so-called 100-day assessment report that newspapers and television channels dished out ad nauseam.
But precious little has been written or said about those on the opposite side. If evaluating the prime minister or the government over 100 days has become the culture, there is no reason why the same courtesy cannot be extended to include the opposition as well. For, in a democracy the role of the opposition is as important as that of the ruling dispensation, some times more so; how the opposition brought a rampaging Indira Gandhi to her knees in 1977 being the prime example.
Again, as with the government, these are early days for the opposition too for anyone to make a studied assessment of what strategy, if at all any, it will adopt to put the necessary checks and balances in government functioning. However, in a scenario where the government has a run-away majority, opposition vigilance will be most crucial for proper democracy to prevail.
Unfortunately in the Indian context, given its multifarious pulls and pressures combined with the self-aggrandising, rent-seeking nature of most regional parties, the opposition has always been an amorphous lot ready to change directions much like the wind. So we have a Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad all of a sudden joining hands to stem the flow of the BJP in Bihar but a Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav not ready to do so in Uttar Pradesh and a Left (or what is left of the Left!) not seeing eye-to-eye with a Mamata Bannerjee in West Bengal however “noble” the cause.
But, more importantly, what is happening to the main opposition party in the Lok Sabha is of major concern, not just for the party itself but for the nation as a whole. Getting decimated in electoral politics is part of the bargain. But getting decimated and demoralised at the same time is highly detrimental, even if you are a 100-plus year old political outfit. The Congress, filling just 44 seats in a 543-member Lok Sabha, is in such a state right now.
The blame has to squarely sit on the Congress leadership. If there was any attempt to find a scapegoat in the Manmohan Singh-led government for the electoral debacle, it has not succeeded because the party, shorn off power, seems as rudderless as the government was. Party president Sonia Gandhi has health issues that do not allow her to dedicate her total time to party work. Her attempts to groom son Rahul has, perhaps, more to do with her own state of health than that of the party. Not that Rahul has shown any particular skill to rejuvenate the party back to its once former self. On the contrary, his brief spells of active participation followed by long stints of stupor has led the Congress down the slippery slope faster than the Japanese train technology that Modi is eager to bring to India!
Since the declaration of election results on May 16, Rahul has been visible to the public just three times. On the day his party drew the short straw, he and his mother came to the media to own up responsibility for the defeat in an ever-so-brief interaction. He then made his presence felt three weeks later, on August 6, by storming the well of the Lok Sabha in an unprecedented manner in protest against the rise of communalism in Uttar Pradesh. He apparently didn’t have much to say, so he made a show of protest and, in the process, a spectacle of himself. Nearly a month later, on September 4, after a visit to his constituency Amethi, Rahul took on the prime minister in a very childish way when he said: “The PM is playing drums in Japan while there is no electricity here and the prices are rising.” Even his own party did not give much credence to what Gandhi had to say because by general consensus it was accepted that Modi’s visit to Japan was an unequivocal success. And the lack of electricity in Uttar Pradesh and rising prices are legacies that can be placed squarely at the doorstep of the Congress Party.
Naturally there is a leadership vacuum in the Congress. Rahul is definitely not the man if the party has to pull itself up in time for the next Lok Sabha elections leave alone the upcoming state assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra. (He is currently vacationing abroad even as the party is eagerly waiting to decide the candidates for these polls.) The Congress has to device new strategies to placate a young and aspirational India. The way to rule India of the 21st century is not through dole and quota and the much-abused theme of secularism, but through modern technology generating more and more jobs and thereby uplifting the general standard of life. Modi gauged it correctly and the results are there for all to see.
The Congress has a number of young leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Jitin Prasada, etc. All of them are well educated, can speak well and can connect with the urban young even as they are responsive to the rural elderly. But the old-guard in the party is fighting them for fear of losing their relevance. The outcome of this fight, being fought at many plains both overtly and covertly, will decide the future of the Congress. Any harking back to the bad old ways will bury the party for good. On the other hand, if the young minds can change the mindset of the party as a whole, India’s Grand Old Party can live to fight another day.
‘Squatters’ ordered
to vacate bungalows
Narendra Modi’s style and work ethic are different from previous prime ministers, including that of A B Vajpayee. Not just his ministers and bureaucrats but almost the entire country knows this by now. But then again there are exceptions to this rule. For example some former ministers and MPs.
To be within handshaking distance of the corridors of power in Delhi means living in one of the many leafy bungalows of what is commonly known as Lutyens’ Delhi, named after the legendary British architect, Sir Edward Lutyens who designed the neighbourhood. So these once-upon-a-time worthies have been having a cosy camaraderie with the estates department of the ministry of urban development that let them continue to stay in these government-owned bungalows much after the end of their entitlements. The set-up has been so comfortable that someone like Motilal Vora, the Congress Party’s national treasurer, has been enjoying the environs of not one but seven such bungalows in a city where people live cheek by jowl, many in sub-human conditions.
Ajit Singh is another example. He had a brief stint as minister for civil aviation in the Manmohan Singh government. But he has been staying in the palatial bungalow that had been allotted to his late father after his six-month rule as the prime minister of India ended in 1980. Even as a minister Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal was perhaps not entitled to such costly real estate but the old boys’ network in Delhi comes in handy in these circumstances. So he got to keep “his” house for the past three decades or more. If he were to be charged rent at market rate, Singh would have had to shell out anything up to Rs3mn a month whereas he was enjoying the comforts for less than one-hundredth of that amount!
Veteran Congressman and former defence minister A K Antony, who otherwise had shown much alacrity in quitting his office every time there was a question mark over his administration, apparently is a changed man now. More than three months after ceasing to be a minister, Antony had been staying put in his bungalow. And so have been former MPs like ex-cricketer Mohamed Azharuddin (Congress), B Y Raghavendra of the BJP who is the son of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, Khagen Das (CPM) and nearly 30 others. This when at least three ministers in the Modi government are living in one-room accommodations in their respective state guest houses!
All this, however, is coming to a sudden end. The urban development ministry had sent notices to these “squatters” asking them to vacate their bungalows. When repeated reminders went unanswered, the ministry sent in its officials to take physical possession of these bungalows. In Ajit Singh’s case his cronies ganged up on these officials. So they took the next best step. They disconnected power and water supply to these bungalows. The result has been immediate. Several of these squatters moved out the same day while others are packing in a hurry. The message has gone across loud and clear: Modi means business!
