Amit Kushari IAS Retd
The winter session of Parliament is likely to begin soon and Modi is likely to face a hostile opposition in both the houses. The way Modi is conquering state after state in India, all the non NDA parties are fast losing ground everywhere and this has generated a genuine scare among all the non NDA political parties. They are now huddling together, crying on each others shoulders and confabulating as to how they could get together under one umbrella, sinking their differences, so that they could stall the supersonic chariot of Narendra Modi. The RJD, JDU and Samajwadi party of UP are now holding each others hands and asking themselves,”Aren’t we the children of the same mother, the old Janata Dal? Aren’t we the followers of Ram Manohar Lohia and Jay Prakash Narain?” They have now decided to function like a single bloc in Parliament. Mamata Bannerjee’s TMC is also trying to patch up with the Left Front to fight a bigger enemy like BJP which has suddenly appeared on the horizon like a roaring tiger. Prior to May 2014, BJP had only 8% support in Bengal. During Lok Sabha elections of May 2014 we found that the BJP support had gone up to 17%, winning 2 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats of Bengal. There after in the last 6 months, the BJP base has swelled by leaps and bounds and it is estimated that very soon BJP will be able to bag at least 30 Lok Sabha seats of Bengal. The Leftist citadel has crumbled down very fast, and the Congress has also suddenly vanished from the scene. BJP is rapidly filling up this vacuum thus created, because we all know that nature abhors vacuum.
The Trinamool Congress has also provided Bengal with a very inefficient and corrupt Government and both Hindus and Muslims are deserting it very fast. A number of chit funds had looted the poor people of Bengal and it is estimated that some 10,000 crore rupees had been looted. It is suspected that powerful TMC ministers and MPs pocketed all that money and under the orders of the Supreme court the CBI is investigating into it. A number of important bigwigs of the Trinamool have been already arrested and a number of them are in the queue. Some ministers are feigning illness and taking shelter in Government hospitals to avoid arrest. This has infuriated the Chief Minister and being threatened from all sides, she has lost her cool and is attacking the Prime Minister in a most vicious and inappropriate language. She knows she has been caught on the wrong foot and apprehends that very soon CBI cops may knock on her door. She has therefore taken up the role of the leader of Opposition in the Parliament and has directed her MPs to create hurdles for the Central Government in every possible way.
Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav and other oppositin MPs are likely to back Mamata Bannerjee because they do not have an impressive numerical strength in parliament as she has. Only Jaya Lalitha had similar strength but now she is under house arrest and is ineffective. So now Mamata is the chief Modi ‘basher’. It is ironcal that the Prime Minister of East Bengal( Bangla Desh), is a great friend of Modi where as the Chief Minister of West Bengal is an enemy. Sheikh Hasina, PM of Bangladesh, is arresting Jamaat’s ring leaders in large numbers whereas many in India believe that TMC is hand in glove with Islamic fundamentalists to ensure that the 27% Muslim vote bank comes to their kitty.
In the Lok Sabha it will be difficult for TMC, Congress, SP and others to corner BJP, because BJP+ has a brute majority of 336 out of 543. But in the Rajya Sabha, at the moment BJP does not have a majority. Even its own ally, Shiv Sena, is not very dependable and is like “a half girl friend” to borrow this phrase from Chetan Bhagat’s latest book. Since the State Assemblies are one by one falling to BJP’s winning chariot, in the near future, even the Rajya Sabha will have BJP majority and then Modi may not have any difficulty in getting his bills passed. Till then, he has to depend on the good will of Biju Janta Dal, AIADMK, DMK and other semi friendly parties. Shiv Sena also has to be brought back to the Maharashtra Government so that it becomes a dependable friend.
However, there is no hostile acrimony between BJP and the other parties in J&K, the type of savage and uncivilised acrimony we witness in Bengal. After all the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are very polite and cultured. They are far, far better in human quality than in the rest of India.
(The author is former financial Commissioner J&K Feedback to the author at 09748635185 or amitkus@hotmail.com )
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel