The INDIA alliance on Monday claimed their second victory in a week when the BJP staged a protest at the Gandhi statue in the Parliament House complex as a counter to the Opposition’s scheduled protest on Manipur at the same venue in the morning.

“Sure signs that INDIA parties are doing it right. We announced our dharna in solidarity with #Manipur a few days ago for Mon 24 July 10.30 by Gandhi statue in #Parliament. BJP in REACTIVE mode. Doing copycat atsame venue, hurriedly announced this morning. Looking to deflect,” tweeted Trinamul Congress’sRajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien.

This, Opposition leaders pointed out, was the second time in less than a week that they have managed to set the agenda.

Last week, after the Opposition parties decided to meet in Bangalore to strategise for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP announced that it would convene a meeting of its NDA allies on the same day itself to mark 25 years of the coalition.

The BJP — which on its own commands over 300 MPs in the Lok Sabha — indulged in a curious show of strength by claiming the support of 38 parties against the 26 Opposition parties that had converged in Bangalore, moving away from the much-trumpeted “ek akela” narrative ofthe singular leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the collective NDA government.

In public perception, the Opposition appeared to have set the agenda by forcing the BJP to go about rounding up its allies.

Monday’s protest by the BJP at the Gandhi statue against violence in Rajasthan was seen by some in the Opposition as another such win. However, in this case, it was also part of the ruling party’s effort to draw a “false equivalence” — as Leader of the Opposition in the RajyaSabha Mallikarjun Kharge said — with the situation in Manipur.

“If Prime Minister Modi has any ounce of constitutional propriety left, he will make an elaborate statement on the violence in Manipur since May 3. No amount of whataboutery and false equivalence shall work in the case ofManipur violence,” Kharge said at the INDIA coalition protest where Opposition MPs held up banners using the new name woven into the day’s agenda — “INDIA for Manipur” — in the chosen colour palette of the Tricolour and the blue of the Indian cricket team.

As for the Opposition’s insistence that the Prime Minister should make a statement and not Union home minister Amit Shah — as offered by the government — RJD’s Manoj Jha explained that Manipur was more than a law-and-order issue.

“The Prime Minister’s persistent silence is significant and holds meaning. What his silence suggests needs to be changed. It is in the Prime Minister’s interest that he ends his silence with a suo motu statement in both houses of Parliament,’’ Jha told reporters.

With the government prepared to allow only a short-duration discussion in both houses of Parliament as opposed to the Opposition’s demand for suspension of business to discuss Manipur at length, the INDIA coalition is said to be delving into the rule books to search for other provisions that will make it necessaryfor the Prime Minister to speak. One option is a vote of no-confidence in theLok Sabha but its fate is a foregone conclusion and the Opposition may not want suchan embarrassment at this juncture. Also, it couldtake the focus away from Manipur.