Opposition says it's united against the Modi govt, even if Congress isn't

The Congress willing or not, the rest of the Opposition parties have decided to hold at least one show of opposition unity every month against the Narendra Modi government.

The Saturday evening support of four chief ministers to Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government's fight with the Centre was an example of such display of opposition unity against the Modi government.

The last such display was at the swearing in ceremony of Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy as the Karnataka chief minister on May 23, and a halfhearted attempt to show opposition unity was made at the iftar hosted by Congress president Rahul Gandhi last week.

While the Congress party distanced itself from the latest show of opposition unity, arch-rivals Trinamool Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) came together. On Saturday evening, Kerala CM and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal CM, Trinamool chief, Mamata Banerjee and Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy held a joint press conference to appeal to the Centre to break the impasse between Delhi’s AAP government and its bureaucracy. 

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On Sunday, leaders and cadres of the Left parties joined those of the AAP in their march to the Prime Minister’s Office. CPI (M) chief Sitaram Yechury, who was there at Sunday’s protest march, told Business Standard that the plan to showcase Opposition unity would include efforts to revive the ‘sanjhi virasat bachao’, or ‘save India’s composite culture’, campaign. There could also be joint protests and demonstrations in state capitals on issues of peoples’ concerns – agrarian distress, steep hike in petrol and diesel prices, joblessness, etc. 

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On Sunday, the four chief ministers met the PM before the start of the fourth governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog. Banerjee said the chief ministers requested the PM “to resolve the problems of the Delhi government immediately”.

The Congress stayed away from Sunday protests, too. None of the two Congress chief ministers who attended the NITI Aayog meeting – Punjab’s Amarinder Singh and Puducherry’s V Narayanasamy – joined the four CMs in their appeal to the PM. 

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However, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren, a Congress ally, also came put in support of AAP. “The events unfolding in Delhi are clearly a brazen violation of constitutional norms and restrict federalism in the country,” Soren said. Rashtriya Janata Dal, also a Congress ally in Bihar, has supported the AAP.

The ‘sanjhi virasat bachao’ campaign was started last year under the leadership of dissident Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav. Its first meeting was held in Delhi in August, and subsequent meetings were held in Mumbai, Indore and Jaipur. All leading politicians from across the spectrum of opposition parties have attended these meetings.