Everything Jaise Tha | JP Gadkari

July 9, 2024

With a brief formal session of Parliament for declaring open the 18th Lok Sabha and the President addressing its first session and the election of Speaker being over, it has become clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his well-known arrogance is treating everything as it was prior to 2024 election and behaving as if nothing has changed.

Earlier, after getting himself elected as leader of NDA and his own legislature party, Modi got himself sworn in as Prime Minister along-with his entire Cabinet of 72 members. All senior Cabinet Ministers were later appointed in the same posts with minor adjustments here and there and with miniscule changes to accommodate MPs from allied parties in the ministry.

While the Speaker’s election was being scheduled, Modi arrogantly rejected the magnanimous offer of the Opposition to support the choice of Speaker by the ruling party if the Deputy Speaker’s post is filled with a member of the Opposition. As a democratic tradition and parliamentary practice, the post of the deputy Speaker is always allotted to a largest opposion party. But the Modi Government during the last ten years deliberately avoided this practice and kept it vacant. All indications are there that it will be kept vacant during his this term of office too.

It was observed during the two and half hour long vote of thanks speech of Modi on President’s Address that his arrogant attitude towards opposition remains the same without bothering about the huge increase in the combined numerical strength of the Opposition. Throughout his speech Modi, singled out only Congress for his attack which is the most important component of the united opposition, having doubled its strength. He once again tried to ridicule Rahul Gandhi by charging him for displaying his " Balak buddhi" (juvenile attitude) towards issues facing the country without substantiating it.

While speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Modi for the first time referred to Manipur and claimed that situation is "improving" there. Ignoring the constructive suggestions being made by the opposition, Modi went on to warn those who are "adding fuel to the fire" and that "they will be taught a lesson by the people of Manipur."

According to political observers, this is just the beginning of the show. Very soon the Parliament is scheduled to meet for the budget session and there will be a full-fledged confrontation between the Govt and the opposition. Issues like NEET-UG test, the stock exchange scam just between the exit polls and 4 June results, the security bonds and the budget itself will have big exchange of fire between the two.

In the meantime, there are speculations about both the main allies of BJP in the NDA, Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Nitish Kumar’s JDU are not happy with the Prime Minister for not keeping his promises. On the other hand there are indications that before the scheduled Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand elections, which are due in next four months, BJP will make desparate efforts to break the opposition parties through its "Operation Lotus".

Meanwhile, the first test for NDA and INDIA bloc will be the results of the Assembly bypoll for 13 seats in 7 States which are due on Saturday (13th July). The polling for these 13 seats have already taken place on Wednesday (10th July). They are West Bengal four seats, Himachal Pradesh three seats, Uttarakhand two seats and one seat each in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. Among these the bypoll for four seats in West Bengal is keenly watched as three of them became vacant because three BJP MLAs had jumped over to TMC and one became vacant because of the death of sitting TMC MLA. Similarly, the election for three seats in Himachal are also being keenly watched since election was necessitated as three Independent MLAs joined BJP by resigning their seats.

In all other seats also there is a fierce battle between the two blocs as this bypoll is being seen as the dress rehearsal for the elections due in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand in the next four months.