Assembly setback aside, INDIA alliance set to resume talks with renewed mojo

After a three-month hiatus that saw the resurgence of acrimony between some of its constituents and massive BJP victories in three Hindi heartland states, the Opposition’s INDIA bloc will return to the talks table on Tuesday (December 19) at Delhi’s Hotel Ashoka. The resumption of dialogue among the INDIA partners also comes in the wake of a brazen pushback from the BJP, which, over the past fortnight, had Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra expelled from the Lok Sabha in the alleged cash-for-query case and then got 14 other Opposition MPs suspended from Parliament for the rest of the winter session for demanding a discussion on the December 13 Parliament security breach incident.

With the Lok Sabha polls just four months away and the BJP on the ascendant again following its triumphs in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the INDIA partners realise they need to get down to brass tacks over seat-sharing negotiations and joint campaigns instead of wasting more time on meetings of the various committees and sub-groups that the bloc had formed after its September 1 summit in Bombay.

The Congress party’s shock defeat in the Hindi belt states has also led several INDIA constituents to believe that the poll routs will force the Grand Old Party to be more accommodating of its alliance partners in seat-sharing talks. The Congress, confident of winning MP and Chhattisgarh but ended up losing both, along with Rajasthan, while emerging victorious just in Telangana, also realises that it can no longer be the sole fulcrum of the rainbow coalition.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had been left red-faced by senior INDIA partners when, in the immediate aftermath of the December 3 poll results, his initiative for convening a meeting of the chiefs of allied parties on December 6 was spurned by leaders such as Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and even Nitish Kumar. As a consolation, Kharge had to contend with hosting senior MPs and floor leaders of the INDIA parties for dinner at his Delhi residence.

Sources cutting across the INDIA coalition told

The Federal that the Assembly poll results have infused a greater sense of urgency among the bloc’s leaders to finalise the framework of the alliance. “Everything had come to a halt after the Mumbai conclave and the coordination committee meeting in September. The Congress was busy with Assembly polls and its leaders like Kamal Nath, in their overconfidence, ended up slighting partners like Akhilesh Yadav. Now that the results have shown that the BJP has only emerged stronger in the Hindi Heartland, which also constitutes a bulk of the Lok Sabha seats, the Congress and all other partners realise there is no point wasting time in discussing who among us is strong, who should lead or who should be the convenor... we have to get down to business, we have to start a joint campaign and finalise seat arrangements or we have to go our separate ways; these are the only options and we will discuss them on December 19,” a senior INDIA leader said.

Sources said Kharge, besides having daily meetings with floor leaders of INDIA parties during the ongoing session of Parliament, has also been engaged in backchannel talks, directly and through his emissaries, with chiefs of the alliance constituents. These discussions, it is learnt, were meant to pacify leaders such as Akhilesh, who has been nursing a grudge against the Congress – Kamal Nath, in particular – for humiliating him during the MP polls, and also assuage others satraps such as Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee who felt that the Congress was, once again, trying to act like a Big Brother in the Opposition bloc.

It is learnt that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, too, has been in touch with some of the INDIA leaders and has assured them of her “unwavering commitment” towards ensuring that the alliance takes off electorally and “any misunderstandings among allies are resolved promptly through amicable discussions”. Sources said Sonia has been particularly mindful of keeping the Trinamool Congress in good humour and that her conscious move to stand in solidarity “behind Mahua Moitra” on the steps of Parliament after Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha was “as much about her (Sonia’s) steadfast commitment to principles of natural justice and her expression of solidarity with a wronged Opposition MP as it was about telling Mamata Banerjee that her party and its MP have the full support of the Congress”. Sonia had also made it a point to join the protest by the 14 Opposition MPs who, last week, were suspended from Parliament for demanding a discussion on the December 13 Parliament security breach incident.

It is still premature to predict whether the December 19 conclave will iron out all differences among the INDIA partners and give them a glide path for navigating the tricky issue of seat-sharing arrangements. However, sources said the meet could see the INDIA partners make an aggressive pitch against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP on the one plank that the saffron party has pompously owned for the past decade – that of national security and muscular nationalism.

The December 13 Parliament security breach incident, the government’s stout dismissal of the Opposition’s demands to discuss the episode in Parliament and the BJP’s deafening silence over the role of its Mysuru MP, Prathap Simha, in facilitating the entry into Parliament of those accused in the security breach case have collectively given the INDIA bloc enough ammunition to launch a fresh offensive against the Prime Minister and his party. That 14 MPs, 13 from the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha, cutting across INDIA parties, have been suspended for the remainder of the winter session for demanding a discussion on the security breach has only given the Opposition added reason to believe it can pin down the government.

Since the security breach episode, the Opposition, while reminding the nation that the previous and more serious attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001, had also happened under a BJP-led NDA regime, has been persistently pressing the argument that if Modi’s BJP government can’t even protect Indian democracy’s greatest symbol from amateur miscreants, how could it stand guard against more serious threats to national security.

The government has, so far, taken refuge under the excuse that the breach was being investigated and those responsible for it had been immediately apprehended and were now being interrogated. The Congress and its INDIA partners are evidently unimpressed with this defence by the government and floor leaders of the bloc have already expressed the view that all Opposition MPs must continue their protests in Parliament until either the PM or, at the very least, Home Minister Amit Shah is compelled to make a statement in both Houses of Parliament, or the government gets all Opposition MPs are suspended.

The INDIA bloc’s belligerence is also on account of the accused in the security breach case asserting that they were forced to take the misguided step of storming the Parliament complex and even the Lok Sabha with smoke canisters because they had “no avenue left” to air their grievances over issues such as unemployment, price rise and also the still ongoing ethnic unrest in Manipur.

Each of these issues has been repeatedly raised by the INDIA partners. It's learnt that the December 19 meeting is likely to see a renewed attack against the government over growing unemployment, price rise and the Prime Minister’s continued silence on Manipur. Leaders said that though the BJP has sought to project its Assembly poll wins as a defeat for the INDIA bloc’s pitch for a caste census, the Opposition alliance is unlikely to abandon the idea and may, in fact, endorse a fresh resolution calling for caste-based enumeration with even Mamata Banerjee, who had, thus far, evaded the issue, giving it her stamp of approval.

Resolutions aside, the December 19 meet, said sources could also see the INDIA bloc make several alterations to its existing committees and sub-groups to give them greater heft (most of these panels are currently populated by second or third-rung leaders) and even set up an overarching secretariat – as was initially proposed – with party bigwigs, if not chiefs, to expedite further discussions. “If this alliance has to get anywhere, it can’t be left to the discussions between junior leaders. Most of us agree that the negotiations have to happen at the highest level to avoid any further delay in operationalising the alliance and this is a view that will be put forth forcefully when we meet,” another senior INDIA leader, who is also part of the bloc’s coordination committee, said.