An unwarranted spat

BY PLUNGING INTO a quarrel over who among them was best ``qualified'' to initiate an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha last week on the crisis facing the farming community, the members of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress had only highlighted the weakness within the Opposition to the ruling BJP-led combine. Indeed, it was obvious even as the House proceedings were being disrupted that the Leader of the Opposition, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, would have preference over others to move such a motion. Even if the Rules of Procedure are silent on this, the convention is that the Leader of the Opposition has this privilege. Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, with years of experience in the legislature should have known this even while MPs belonging to his party rushed to the well of the House insisting that they were better qualified to initiate a debate on the plight of farmers than members of the Congress. In doing so, the issue as such got sidelined and the House was forced to adjourn for the day without transacting any business. That those in the Samajwadi Party spent all their energy in a confrontation with the Congress rather than challenging the treasury benches reflects their skewed political priorities.

Such spats have been taking place between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress ever since Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav refused to back Ms. Gandhi's claims to head the Government in 1998. Mr. Yadav continues to look at the Congress as his rival rather than a necessary ally in the battle against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, particularly after Ms. Gandhi took over as president and the party began to show some faint signs of revival. It is another matter as to whether the gains registered by the Congress after Ms. Gandhi's arrival on the scene have been consolidated at all. But then it is clear that the clash within the Opposition on the floor of the Lok Sabha was only a part of the turf war between the two parties in Uttar Pradesh. And both the formations could not have given up an opportunity to be seen as the ``champion'' of the farming community when the concern is that of enlisting the support of such an influential section of society in Uttar Pradesh - the farmers - particularly with elections to the State Assembly due in less than a year. But then, to let such

considerations overshadow the larger perspective - a unity of forces against the BJP-led coalition - could lead to the shrinking of the entire Opposition space in the long run.

Be that as it may, the outcome of the adjournment motion after it was moved a day after the spat by Ms. Gandhi revealed a different story altogether. The number of MPs who wanted to censure the Government (an adjournment motion is essentially a censure motion) on its farm policy were just 139; a good number of those in the Opposition did not even wait to vote on the motion. It may be true that by forcing the motion (and by extension a vote), a section of the ruling combine - the Telugu Desam in particular - stood exposed; while the party's MPs spoke against the Government's policy, they refused to censure the Government. But then, it is time that the leadership of the Opposition parties exert themselves at least now and embark upon a political course with the potential for mass mobilisation. Any further delay will only leave the Opposition space vacant; such a situation will certainly not help the democratic structure. And where the RSS and its other arms are busy, even otherwise, to capture this space - the swadeshi slogan for instance - the consequences are not hard to imagine.

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