NDA candidate wins Rajya Sabha deputy chairman's post: Is Congress' united Opposition dream a chimera?

3 August: A Congress top party source had asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi won’t get a second chance in office, if the Congress gets its alliance game right. 4 August: In a recent Congress Working Committee meeting , it was decided that the party would build a mass agitation on the issues of the economy, unemployment and farmers’ distress, by raising these matters both inside and outside Parliament. On the same evening, party president Rahul Gandhi expressed solidarity by joining hands with Opposition party leaders at Jantar Mantar. 9 August: The NDA’s nominee and Janata Dal (United) leader Harivansh Narayan Singh elected as Rajya Sabha deputy chairman by defeating Congress candidate BK Hariprasad with 125 ayes against 105 noes. With this election, the Opposition has failed to display its united stand, on the basis of which it is hoping to stop the Narendra Modi juggernaut in the Lok Sabha election next year. This brings to mind what Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said at a News18 ‘Baithak’ program on 7 August, in response to a question on his comments on the Opposition unity, “I only see it in news channels. When I look for it in reality, I don’t see it anywhere,” he remarked. [caption id=“attachment_4931401” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Opposition leaders during the swearing-in of Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy. File image. PTI[/caption] Is the Opposition unity only a chimera that the Congress is chasing in order to cobble together any kind of front to prevent Modi and the BJP from forming the next government? With first-time parliamentarian Harivansh Narayan Singh being elected as the new Rajya Sabha deputy chairman, the Opposition has lost yet another opportunity to take on the ruling coalition, with the 2019 election inching closer. The Congress, whether in its core committee meeting or outside, has been claiming that it has garnered support from various ‘like-minded’ Opposition parties and is working to stitch alliances towards the formation of a united Opposition against the Modi government. But, the election of the NDA’s nominee for the post of the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman raises several questions— where is the alliance, where is the unity in the Opposition ranks for a strong anti-BJP coalition? Even if we take into account only the activities which have taken place in Parliament, the NDA has won two litmus tests — one each in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Last month, the NDA government comfortably won the no-confidence motion moved against it by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on 20 July. Such a debate on a no-confidence motion took place in the Lower House for the first time in 15 years. The numbers were on the Modi government’s side, and they helped it to win the no-trust motion with confidence. The floor of the Upper House on Thursday saw similar scenes. Fielding Harivansh as its nominee was a masterstroke on the part of the BJP, and it enabled it to keep its alliance partners in good humour. On the other hand, the Congress’ decision to change its nominee at the last minute sent out a message that the anti-NDA consensus had failed to materialise. Instead of lending support to NCP candidate Vandana Chavan, whose name was proposed by Bahujan Samaj Party leader Satish Chandra Mishra and seconded by Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien, so as to garner the support of all Opposition parties, the Congress took a U-turn and came up with its own candidate — BK Hariprasad. The Congress had recently said that it would gherao the NDA government inside Parliament along with other Opposition parties on issues like the Rafale deal, banking scams, corruption, agrarian distress, unemployment, etc. However, only time will tell as to how far it will be able to create pressure on the government. The Congress, aware of its weaknesses, said that it is open to alliances ahead of Assembly elections in poll-bound states this year, and thereafter for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. However, Opposition unity—both in letter and spirit — is yet to be seen on the ground, with barely four months left for Assembly elections to take place in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.