Land bill protest: Triumphant return of Sonia Gandhi should worry BJP

Sonia Gandhi leading a “united opposition” in a protest march to Rashtrapati Bhawan had all the necessary ingredients to grab headlines. The way things unfolded on Tuesday evening in fact, should make Congress very happy. More so, because it happened just a day after the party faced severe embarrassment in both Houses of Parliament over its allegations of “political espionage” on Rahul Gandhi. The anti-land acquisition bill platform  has, for all practical purposes, turned into an anti-Modi forum with Sonia Gandhi assuming its leadership role. The supposed Third Front leaders looked very eager to be seen standing by her side. [caption id=“attachment_2159671” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sonia leading the land bill protest: Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption]Sonia for her part, lost no time in turning the whole issue into a “secular-progressive” debate, the same rhetoric that helped Congress stay in power for 10 years under her leadership. “All progressive, secular, democratic and forward looking forces are determined to defeat Modi Government design to promote divisions and social disharmony.” JD(U) chief, Sharad Yadav who stood next to her, hastily added that those who lost in 2014 have come together to sound the bugle for a war against Modi government and this “fight will go to the finish”. Though Sonia has been to Rashtrapati Bhavan on innumerable occasions, three of her visits including yesterdays, have been etched in public memory and have been matters of debate. First in 1999 when after meeting then President KR Narayanan she famously said “we have two seventy two”; the second was in 2004 when she met President APJ Abdul Kalam to stake claim to form the government. The third, yesterday’s protest march, was completely distinct from the previous occasions. This time around she was leading a march, a rarest of rare event in Congress’ post independence history. It didn’t matter to Congress supporters what distance she walked on foot. What did matter was that she had hit the streets, even if only in Lutyens Delhi. Two days ago, she walked down to Manmohan Singh’s residence on Motilal Nehru Marg from AICC headquarter to show him her support after he was named as an accused in the coal scam. The official purpose of going to Rashtrapati Bhawan and petitioning the President was to urge him “to intervene to protect the interest of farmers, and to stress upon the Modi government not to go ahead with the amendments (to the land acquisition act) in the Rajya Sabha." Official purpose aside, the protest march served Congress well in two respects – one the party was able to mobilise a number of other opposition parties to be on its side and second, it reestanblished Sonia’s Gandhi as the supreme leader. In her brief statement at Rashtrapati Bhawan she stressed on the fact that leaders of “14 different parties” have joined in this protest. She also read out the names of those political parties. It suddenly looked as though she was reading list of UPA 1 & 2 allies, including outside supporters – TMC, DMK, NCP, IUML, CPI, CPM, JD(S), SP. JD(U) and INLD are the new additions. But then Congress is now supporting a JD(U) government in Bihar. The INLD, with its top leadership in jail and having been vanquished in Haryana is searching for an identity in the national political scene. It has thus landed where its other erstwhile Janata Parivar partners like SP, JD(U), JD(S), RJD, were headed. Though it was not officially announced to be the case, the 14 parties virtually abided by the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. But for all practical purposes Sonia was back as UPA chairperson. It’s  just that this time around she is leading a pack of parties in opposition. Sharad Yadav, the erstwhile NDA convenor turned protest march co-ordinator, looked visibly pleased standing next to the Congress president, as did leaders of some other parties. That’s certainly not a good news for the ruling BJP. The party would not like a face off with the Congress on the land acquisition bill to turn into a battle for political prestige either for or against Modi. Though the bill as passed by Lok Sabha is scheduled to be placed in Rajya Sabha this week, the date to do so has still not been decided. There is also a possibility that the bill may be withheld for now and placed when Parliament re-opens after recess. In that case the ordinance will lapse but that’s not a very big problem for the government. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who has been the principal architect of the amendments to the bill said, “Congress has adopted obstructionism both as a strategy and now almost as an ideology. The amendments to the land bill are entirely in favour of rural India, it seeks to provide housing to poor and create infrastructure…It is a negative politics of obstructionism which is intended to keep India backwards. If Congress has serious objection, the ordinance gives discretion to State government to continue under old law.” The Congress, however, will not be bothered about Jaitley’s remarks. With leaders of 13 other parties raying behind it, the party strategists have been able to demonstrate its strength to be much more than its strength in Lok Sabha, 44. It also does not matter to them that some among these 13 parties don’t have any presence in the Lok Sabha. Many Congress sympathisers see yesterday’s mobilisation with as much required “Sanjivni booti”, which the main opposition party so desperately needs to resurrect itself. Rahul Gandhi continues to be untraceable. But then nobody really seems to be missing him, even in his own party.