Cool Breeze

WHY NOW?

Why did the government try and push through delimitation right in the middle of two state elections? Where was the urgency to hold a special session of Parliament? While linking the delimitation move to the Women’s Reservations Bill was a smart move (in terms of optics), it clearly did not work. The Opposition managed to stay together and stick to the same narrative—that while the I.N.D.I.A bloc supported women reservations, it opposed delimitation and the plan to increase the number of seats to 816.

Since the latter move is a constitutional amendment it needed a two-third majority to pass it. The government had clearly thought linking the two would force the Opposition to vote for delimitation. This did not happen. The question here is not why the Opposition stood together; but rather, why did the government bring about this test? What has it achieved? The voters of West Bengal will not easily buy the argument that Mamata Banerjee is opposed to women, for the TMC fields a large number of women candidates, much more than the BJP and the Congress. And the BJP is a non-player in Tamil Nadu. If anything, the delimitation move has only angered the South by feeding into the theory that the North wants to overpower the South. Then, what could be the reason for this entire exercise?

THE OPPOSITION LINE-UP

This was one debate where the speakers from the Opposition served their cause well. Not only was there unity in their arguments but their case was well articulated. From the Congress benches, Manish Tewari and Gaurav Gogoi delivered strong arguments citing facts and precedents while Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made an emotional pitch. Her delivery was laced with humour as she reached out directly to the Home Minister who was present on the floor of the House. The attack was not confrontational, rather she chose to make her points with a smile. In fact, Rahul Gandhi commented on this during his own speech when he said that Priyanka had achieved something in five minutes that he could not in the last 20 years which is to make Amit Shah smile. And added she had much to learn from the way she delivered her point across.

In fact, Priyanka’s style is very much the style adopted by the Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav. In fact, Akhilesh may have begun his political career as a youth leader, agitating on the streets. But over the years, his style has matured towards being more statesman-like. He is much more measured in his approach rather than adopting a dangal style attitude of confrontation. And this is working; because the government may or may not take note of what others say, but whenever Akhilesh Yadav makes a speech on the floor of the House, it draws a response, either from the Home Minister or even the Prime Minister himself. And indeed, this is the way politics should be played.

MESSAGE FROM BIHAR

The choice of Samrat Chaudhary as the next Chief Minister of Bihar was a significant one. That the BJP chose a leader who has some grip on state politics as opposed to a total novice or a rubber stamp, is a telling. The party seems to have clearly come to the conclusion that it cannot ignore leaders with some state level heft. This is one reason why the party is doing well in states like Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, without having the Prime Minister to devote too much of his time campaigning there during the polls. Strong leaders come with a comeback tag and if the BJP does not want to end up like the Congress, it should go back to its old policy—that of nurturing strong regional leaders. After all, that is the route that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself took on his journey to the country’s top job.