By Lalit Garg
The role of opposition political parties, which are considered to be the important basis of India’s democracy, is quite disappointing at this time of the horrors of the Corona epidemic. Where are the opposition political parties in this crisis? Does democracy in the eyes of these national and regional political parties only mean contesting elections and coming to power? In the face of the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, it has been more than one hundred twenty five days and about seventy five days since the lockdown. During this time, individuals, families, societies, institutions are all engaged in their service in the service of humanity, but the opposition parties have not played any effective and positive role in these moments of crisis.
In this scenario, when we think about Indian democracy today, it suddenly comes to mind that what has happened to the opposition in the country? The strength of the opposition is also necessary for the success of democracy. Going by the last few years the true position and stature of the opposition parties has been revealed. The attitude of the opposition today is deeply disappointing and unfortunate for democracy.
From the elections to the formation of the government, the opposition parties seem to be doing quite contrary to their role and have been striving to fulfill their personal agendas instead of building a strong India. Is it not better that the opposition be seen doing some specific experiments and efforts in the public welfare at the time of the catastrophe without any political gain. The question is also that instead of criticizing the efforts of the Modi government for the corona liberation, the opposition parties and leaders should have engaged in ventures providing relief to the people, perhaps then they would have benefited in the upcoming elections. In fact, when the whole country was fighting against Corona, the Congress and its allies were busy finding new opportunities for criticism and blockage. Maharashtra is in its worst phase at this time. Instead of political factionalization of ‘Like Mind Parties’, if these parties spent more time in understanding their accountability, they would have contributed more to the national interest and increased their political acceptance. It was not the time to make a politically inspired statement on Corona, but to fight a common battle, which was lost by all political parties.
The Corona fight was an occasion to spark the political life of political parties, but in Indian democracy, opposition parties have failed to play the part. Not only more than a dozen opposition parties not have any concrete idea of corona liberation, but also there is no resolve to win the hearts of the people of the country. The irony and inconsistencies of the opposition parties in these crisis times has been exposed. Opposition parties maintained the idea of defeating Modi even in the moments of this great tragedy. It seemed that in India, the world’s largest democracy, opposition parties are proving to be incapable, losing their eligibility, due to policies not being the main issue instead of leadership, that is why neither can they defeat Modi. This situation is largely known to the general public that the opposition parties are not serious about presenting any concrete political opinion and their narrow interests are hampering the nation .
The Contradiction of speech and action leads to loss of credibility, a symptom of political immaturity. A political party is made of core values, structured organization, from which system is formed. But today it is lacking in Congress. The Congress which ruled the country for six decades only cared for the Gandhi family, neither was there any organization, nor worker, nor India nor people of India on their agenda. And now in a catastrophe like Corona, the safety and health of the public is also not on its agenda. Barring a few exceptions, this has been the case for all national and regional political parties based on individual, clan and family, be it Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress Party, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or any other party. This is the reason that all these parties are marginalized today and the Corona period is also going to be the lesson of their political life. As far as the communists are concerned, they have avoided the concept of Indian nation. This is the reason that all the bastions of communists in the country have collapsed, whether in West Bengal or Tripura. Just one left in Kerala. There too, its future is not secure.
The strength of the opposition is the strength of democracy. As an opposition leader, celebrities like Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Atal Bihari Vajpayee are remembered even today. The opposition was needed yesterday, is still and will continue to be needed. But why is the current opposition party so apathetic about its role? While there is a very simple arithmetic of politics, one who plays the role of the opposition in a more efficient manner, he becomes the character of the party in an effective and powerful way. In the era of the Corona crisis too, efforts were made for opposition unity, but these efforts have been done to weaken Modi’s policies and programs, not for the purpose of any service. The important question is that if the intention behind this solidarity was to get rid of Covid’s tragedy and concern for public interest, then why were these suggestions and demands only made at the Center level? In states where these opposition parties have governments, where Corona has wreaked havoc, why were the suggestions not implemented?
The coalition of opposition parties broadened the criticism of the ruling party BJP on ideological, political and economic grounds, but gave no effective alternative. Instead of blaming someone else, it’s time to brood. Democracy is in an ideal state only when there is strong opposition. Today the common man is troubled by the problems of inflation, troubled business conditions, unemployment, etc. These conditions can give a new dimension to the purpose of opposition unity, why is the opposition not ready to take advantage of these situations. Today the opposition is a victim of this plight. It’s time to open the door to some new possibilities, show the way to solve all the problems of the country and society, present a roadmap to curb inflation, unhealth, unemployment, economic imbalances and business plight. If the opposition is worried about trade, economy, unemployment, rural life and poor condition of farmers, then it should be reflected in their programs and statements.The basic pillar of democracy, the opposition, can it be a guiding light in these testing times while preserving the values?
(Lalit Garg is a Journalist, columnist, writer and member of Rajbhasha samiti, Ministry of Home Affairs. He can be reached at lalitgarg11@gmail.com)
