In a democracy, a level playing field for a contest between the party in power and the Opposition is an ideal condition. But the reality can be far from perfect. In a recent interaction with students from Harvard University, the Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, alleged that India’s Opposition was facing severe adversities in its confrontation with the Narendra Modi government. The media, Mr Gandhi stated, had been compromised; there are charges of partisanship against several other institutions that serve as the vanguard of democracy; even access to finances, he added, had been constricted. In other words, the playing field in Mr Gandhi’s opinion is skewed in favour of the ruling party.
Mr Gandhi has not concocted these charges. India’s democratic backsliding, which has coincided with the political ascendancy of Mr Modi’s regime, is the result of a combination of the factors cited by Mr Gandhi. Nonetheless, in his finger pointing, Mr Gandhi sounds perilously close to the proverbial boy who cried wolf. This is because the Opposition, especially the Congress, has none to blame for its failure to find an adequate response to the unfolding crises. The Congress continues to confound India. Feuding — several states have been lost because of inner tussles — organisational inertia — the latest changes to the party setup did not demand accountability from several discredited leaders — and the failure to enthuse the electorate with an alternative vision have led to the dwindling of the Congress’s electoral triumphs. Worse, INDIA, the Opposition coalition that seeks to take the poll battle to the Bharatiya Janata Party, seems to be emulating the Congress in some ways. The general elections are imminent and the BJP is already plotting its return energetically. But INDIA remains unfazed and sloth-like in its strategising. Key wrinkles, such as the sharing of seats among alliance partners, remain unresolved. There is also a perceptible tussle over winning the mantle of leading the coalition with several partners, including the Trinamul Congress, wary of the Congress’s propensity to dwarf its partners. This does not bode well for an alliance that is set to take on a political rival renowned for its ideological coherence and organisational machinery. India’s political history shows that the Opposition can taste success in spite of the odds: the general election of 1977 was a case in point. But the Opposition that Mr Gandhi is part of appears to be cut from a different — inferior — cloth.
