BJP Decides to Hunker Down Against Opposition Fire in Parliament, No Give

NEW DELHI: Parliament will reconvene to chaos, as there has been no real effort to resolve the logjam between the treasury and Opposition benches since the last session. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an all party meeting where he focused on the differences between the two sides on the amendments to the Land Acquisition Bill, but far from placating the Opposition, he even had the normally reticent Samajwadi party coming out with a statement of opposition to the legislation.

Corruption, however, will rock Parliament as the Opposition gears up to take on the government on the Lalit Modi and the Vyapam scam. Beleaguered BJP chief ministers under fire Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chauhan have met party president Amit Shah to judge the waters, and have got the full support of the party. The BJP and government approach is to hunker down and weather the Parliament storm, without giving in to the Opposition on issues such as corruption or for that matter the legislations hanging fire.

Instead the BJP appears to have decided to move from a defensive to an aggressive approach, particularly on the issues of corruption, thereby ensuring a virtual battle of allegations between the opposition and the treasury benches in this monsoon session of Parliament. The 21 day session thus, is likely to dissolve into acrimony with both sides unwilling to concede ground.

This will thus be a political session, a state for all to score brownie points, with the Opposition seeking to expose the government on the issue of corruption and anti-farmer and anti-poor legislations; and the government working now to return the fire. The ‘performance’ as a senior MP told The Citizen tongue in cheek, will play out in the Bihar election arena, with the crucial elections in this state now just around the corner.

The Bihar Legislative Council elections has definitely brought the bounce back in the BJP step, with the party winning 13 of the 24 seats. The RJD-JD(U) combine got just ten seats, six less than their last tally which is a big negative considering that the alliance was being projected as a possible winner in the state. Of course Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has dismissed these results as an aberration, where the common man has not voted. But the BJP has taken these as a referendum of sorts with its leader Sushil Modi pointing out that these reflect the mood and the trend. In the process, the BJP has decided not to go on to the defensive mode, more so on the issue of corruption that appears to have had little impact on the July legislative council polls in Bihar.

The Janata Dal(U), Congress and Left have been working in what is visible in Parliament as a broad alliance with a common strategy on most issues. Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi party and the Bahujan Samaj party have been vocal on the Land Acquisition Bill, but quieter on the issues of corruption roping in the BJP through its Ministers and Chief Ministers. The Congress is following a far more aggressive policy against the BJP, both in and outside Parliament, since the last session of Parliament with Rahul Gandhi leading the charge. He has now made it very clear that the party is not going to give in on the Land Acquisition Bill that the Congress is agitating against on the ground as well. Its front organisations have been activated, after a long time, to take up this issue that is striking a resonance amongst the farmers in some of the states.

The BJP is optimistic that the JD(U) led alliance taking shape for the Assembly elections in Bihar will suffer a further blow over seat adjustments, with the unease between the constituents visible in the sulking of Lalu Prasad Yadav, and the Left reticence to embrace the JD(U) at this stage.

It is clearly a bumpy journey ahead for the non-BJP parties, with the government strategy in parliament clearly being fine tuned with this fact in mind.