New political debate

Anil Anand
As the storm over twin controversial enactments on National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) generates heat and dust as 2019 prepares to bid good bye, the natural question arising at this moment is whether these developments coupled with ruling BJP’s none-too-impressive performance in Haryana Assembly elections and losing power in Maharashtra as a result of revolt propelled by its old, trusted and natural ally, Shiv Sena, have the potential to herald changes in the political narrative in 2020.
For some it must seem to be too premature to raise this question at this early stage and rightly too but these developments cannot be wished away. As is proverbially said even a day is long enough in politics to change the tide, similarly a even a trigger sometimes is enough to pave way for changes in prevailing political thought process or beliefs.
Yet another development and the first of its kind during the last six years rule of Narendra Modi Government or Amit Shah-led BJP that indexed towards the happenings within the ruling party and the prevailing culture, came in the form of nearly 100 BJP MLAs staging a protest in UP Assembly against their own State Government. Yes, in the face of firm grip that Modi-Shah duo has exerted on their Government and the party in the face of an absolute centralised system prevalent, it seemed impossible. But it has happened.
What was the reason for MLAs to revolt and stage a sit-in inside the Assembly hall? One of the MLAs, Nand Kishore Gurjar was prevented from speaking when he rose to talk about alleged harassment he was being meted out by the police and district administration under which his assembly constituency falls. He was bluntly told by the minister for parliamentary affairs to sit down. It is another matter that after the dharna by MLAs the same minister went into a huddle and made all out efforts to pacify the angry MLA Gurjar.
To everyone’s surprise he got rousing support from his party MLAs resulting in all of them staging a dharna against their own Government. The underlying trigger behind the legislators’ protest was reportedly the cavalier attitude of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath even towards the legislators.
In the 400+ UP state assembly the BJP has a brute strength of over 300 MLAs and a dharna by 100 odd MLAs cannot be perceived to be an impending danger to the stability of the Yogi government. But the development holds significance on two counts in the context of the question as to what course would the politics adopt in 2020. Firstly, the trigger has come from the politically most important state of UP which is a stronghold of BJP as it had swept the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the assembly election that took place in the interregnum. Secondly, it is the ‘karmabhoomi’ of Prime Minister Modi as he represents Varanasi in Lok Sabha.
Will this development encourage more voices of dissent within the BJP for the sake of demanding space to express their views or demand their legitimate rights as elected representatives of the people or members of the party? What one can say at this juncture is that the developments in UP should be seen as an ice-breaking move. A kind of freeze had set-in within the saffron party so far as right to expression is concerned.
Obviously, the party has been winning elections in the name of indomitable Modi since 2014 but perhaps overridden with this reality he and his close confidants such as Shah and the Yogi undermined the presence of elected representatives, middle and lower rung leaders and of course the large swath of rank and file. Their expectations could not be kept under the wrapper of Modi dominance which all of them, interestingly, duly recognise.
So, from here on it would be interesting to see how the UP syndrome unfolds in rest of the country. It would also be interesting to see as to whether the culture of centralised polity would be rethought in 2020 by Modi and his close aides in terms of ceding some space to party-persons at various levels within the organisation to Parliament and state assemblies.
It would be easier said than done to expect such a change but definitely the developments of UP assembly must have given a strong reason to Modi-Shah team to ponder over on whether they should continue with their firm-grip tactics and arrogance which the duo often describe as “confidence” and nothing else.
On the controversy generated by the NRC and CAB legislations, it has already engulfed quite a number of higher educational institutions across the country and is gradually taking the centrestage in public discourse. What is more worrying is the impending danger of this discourse taking a communal turn. Such a situation could benefit the ruling dispensation in many ways apart from achieving polarisation on communal lines to distract public attention from more burning issues of bread and butter directly linked to the sagging economic scenario. Some amount of success seems to have already been achieved by the ruling party and its government both at the Centre and in states such as UP and Karnataka. But will it sustain for a long term through the 2020, is a vital question begging for an answer.
The until now dormant and worn-out opposition has a lot to be blamed for giving BJP and its leaders an open field to flex their muscles with smaller regional political parties acting in the most opportunistic manner to be on the right side of the powers that be at crucial stages. The opposition parties, particularly the Congress, must realise that there is a window of an opportunity for them to come out of hibernation and the shock of 2019 Lok Sabha elections and reconnect with people in the most democratic fashion.
Protests and demonstrations while abhorring violence are a part of democracy. After all the BJP’s rise from two seats to current 300 + has lot to do with democratic syndrome. From those heady days of internal emergency of 1975 that saw the downfall of mighty Indira Gandhi, till Atal Bihari Vajpayee leading the first BJP Government at the Centre in the late 1990s, it has the backdrop of protests, demonstrations, jail terms and what not.
Apart from political parties the people of country are duty bound to carefully assess and bisect each and every issue tossed by these parties before falling into their emotional traps. We the people must own our responsibilities to safeguard the constitution and must question the Governments about issues of bread and butter, and pride of the nation rather than falling in the trap.
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