Key takeaways from Congress, AAP, BRS bonhomie in Parliament

Predictable disruptions and adjournments of both Houses of Parliament aside, the second half of Parliament’s budget session that began on Monday (March 13) saw the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) extend unexpected support to the Congress in its effort to marshal a united Opposition against the ruling BJP.

Parliament bonhomie for starters

Monday’s coordinated floor strategy between the unlikely allies, which have been stridently undermining each other’s political credentials for months, may not yet be enough to predict an electoral alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. However, Monday’s bonhomie between the Congress, AAP and the BRS does portend a significant issue-based coalition inside Parliament against a ruthless BJP-led Centre, which each of these Opposition parties have accused of subverting democracy and constitutional norms.

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For Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which remained the only significant outlier in Monday’s display of Opposition unity, questions are bound to be asked on who really stands to gain the most from its Ekla Chalo (walk alone) politics – the BJP or the Opposition.

The implications of the solidarity that the BRS and the AAP showed towards the Congress on a day when the latter’s former president, Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, came in for a blistering attack by the Treasury Benches in both Houses of Parliament presents a recondite choice to the Grand Old Party for its ongoing manoeuvres towards ensuring a lasting united Opposition bloc. The AAP ensured that its Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh, attended the joint meeting of 16 “like-minded parties” called by Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, on Monday morning, to discuss a coordinated floor strategy for the day’s parliamentary proceedings.

Though the BRS, like the Trinamool, skipped the meeting called by Kharge, it found common cause with the Congress when the proceedings began. Both AAP and BRS MPs actively participated in protests by their Congress counterparts in the Rajya Sabha when Leader of the House, BJP’s Piyush Goyal launched into a tirade against Rahul, albeit without naming him, for criticising the state of Indian democracy in a “shameless manner”, accused the Wayanad MP of maligning India’s image while on his recent visit to the UK and demanded that the former Congress chief apologise for telling a London audience that India’s “democracy is under attack”.

 United protest

When the Rajya Sabha was adjourned shortly past 11.15 AM due to disruptions by both Treasury and Opposition MPs, AAP and BRS MPs joined the Congress’s call for a protest march from Parliament to Vijay Chowk and then also addressed the media after Kharge made his initial remarks accusing the Prime Minister of “running the country like a dictator”. The optics of the joint Opposition briefing were equally interesting as on either side of Kharge stood the AAP’s Sanjay Singh and K Keshav Rao of the BRS, unlike earlier such briefings when leaders from the Left parties, the DMK or the RJD’s Manoj Jha would be seen flanking the LoP.

When the Rajya Sabha reconvened at 2PM for a few minutes of raucous disruptions before being adjourned for the day, Rao even intervened to supplement Kharge and Congress MP Digvijaya Singh’s charge against Goyal of being in breach of parliamentary rules. The Leader of the House had made comments against Rahul, who is not a member of the Upper House. Rao even asked Goyal if the latter, when invited to a foreign university to speak on Indian democracy, “would lie” to hide the failures of his party “or speak the truth” in national interest.

 Significant sign of Opposition unity

As mentioned earlier, this coordination between the Congress, AAP and the BRS does not signal a future electoral alliance. But, it can’t be brushed aside either – certainly not by the Congress or even by the BJP. Until now, the Congress had repeatedly accused the BRS and the AAP – as well as the Trinamool Congress – of being B Teams of the BJP and had, thus, refused to have any meaningful political engagement with these outfits.

The practical problems in the Congress having any dalliance with the AAP or the BRS are easy to comprehend. The AAP has emerged as the Congress’s principal adversary in Delhi and Punjab – both states that the GOP dominated electorally. Kejriwal’s plans to expand the electoral footprint of his party across other states hinge predominantly on usurping the political space of the Congress by discrediting it as a party that can no longer take on the BJP.

In fact, even as the AAP was echoing the Congress’s attacks at the BJP in Parliament and demanding a JPC probe into the many allegations levelled against industrialist Gautam Adani and his companies, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was launching a Tiranga Yatra in Jaipur with an announcement of his party’s intent to contest this year’s assembly polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh – both bipolar states with the Congress and the BJP as dominant electoral entities. In Delhi, the Congress has been echoing the BJP’s attacks at the AAP over the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

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Similarly, in Telangana, which is due for assembly polls at the end of this year, the Congress sees itself as the principal rival of the ruling BRS. Repeated assertions by BRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter, K. Kavitha (currently facing probe in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam in which AAP’s Manish Sisodia has already been arrested) that the Congress must “give up its big brother attitude” and stop insisting on being the fulcrum of any future grand alliance of Opposition parties also indicates that an electoral truck between the two parties is unlikely.

Despite these contradictions, the AAP and BRS allowed the Congress to take the lead on Monday in presenting a united Opposition front against the BJP. It is obvious that the two parties would now expect the Congress to reciprocate their gesture by condemning the hounding of their leaders by central investigative agencies instead of supporting it like the Congress units in Delhi or Telangana have done in the case of Manish Sisodia and Kavitha, respectively.

 Why BJP should take notes

There is also a cause of worry for the BJP. The Centre had, so far, benefitted greatly in bulldozing its legislative agenda through Parliament, particularly in the Rajya Sabha, due to the trust deficit between the leadership of the three parties. When not supporting the BJP’s legislative agenda in Parliament, the AAP and BRS would invariably walk out before any contentious Bill was put to vote in either House instead of voting against it alongwith the Congress and other Opposition outfits. At other times, the BRS and the AAP would break ranks with other Opposition parties after initially agreeing to a common floor strategy, thereby plunging House proceedings into disarray, forcing adjournments and, thereby, allowing the Centre to evade answering tough questions about its performance, or rather the lack of it.

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There is no telling whether this duplicitous practice by the two parties will continue as the ongoing session progresses or in later Parliamentary sessions. However, if the AAP and BRS decide to throw their numbers behind the Congress-led Opposition bloc of parties such as the DMK, the Left Front constituents, the RJD, the JMM and others, it would surely irk the BJP even if the formidable numerical strength of the Treasury Benches and other shenanigans employed by the Centre eventually ensures passage of such Bills.