I.N.D.I.A.’s mandate: Be a strong opposition

The I.N.D.I.A. bloc of parties has done well to restrain itself over exploring possibilities to form the next government though such possibilities exist. There were reports that the grouping had initially intended to seek support from other parties to form a government, beating the BJP, the single largest party, to it. That would have been beyond its mandate in the election, and indeed a clear violation of it. The people gave the alliance a mandate to be a strong and effective Opposition, in the present circumstances, at least till the time the BJP declines an invitation from the President to form a government, fails to form it, or an NDA government collapses. The BJP can now stake claim to form the government as the single largest party and leader of a pre-poll alliance which finished ahead of the I.N.D.I.A. grouping. The I.N.D.I.A. bloc should respect that and refrain from making a bid to form a government which would be patently undemocratic. 

The task before the I.N.D.I.A. grouping is to act as an effective and credible Opposition inside and outside parliament and hold the new government to account over its policies and actions. It has got ample strength in the Lok Sabha, and the government will not be able to ignore it or treat it with disdain as it did in the last Lok Sabha. The opposition bloc can take parliament back to its better days, force the government to engage with it, and ensure that there are fruitful deliberations and informed law-making.The government had taken parliament for granted in the last 10 years. Parliament is at the heart of the country’s democracy and its decline and deterioration has done immense harm to it. The Opposition has the opportunity to restore it to its rightful position. It will be a great success if it can bring the incoming Prime Minister back to parliament. In the last 10 years, it seemed that Narendra Modi as Prime Minister considered himself to be above parliament and other institutions.  

The I.N.D.I.A. bloc has a greater task outside parliament, and that would involve the leaders of those parties and their workers. It was a pre-poll arrangement among many parties and should now aim to become a cohesive political coalition with clear goals and policies. It succeeded in forcing public scrutiny of many of the Narendra Modi government’s policies, decisions and actions, and bringing the focus back to the livelihood issues of the people. But in many places, the vote that it got was more against the government than for itself. It has to evolve a programme and vision which will counter what the government would offer. It should also be noted that the new government will have a new set of policies and programmes and the Opposition will have to take them into consideration.