Why PM Modi needs more 'chai pe charcha' with opposition leaders

New Delhi:  It seems Bihar Assembly results have forced Modi government to recalibrate its strategy as far as dealing with opposition in parliament is concerned.

The way Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former premier Manmohan Singh on tea to discuss the passage of GST bill signalled a shift in his approach towards opposition.

It Seems that the PM has mellowed down on handling opposition.

Modi's new approach was conspicuous during his speech on ‘constitution day' debate in parliament. He not only acknowledged the roles played by each of the previous governments in development of the country but also made it a point to specifically mention the name of Jawahar Lal Nehru as one of the vanguards of Indian democracy and constitution. That was perhaps aimed at placating Congress which accused Modi government of deliberately ignoring the contribution of Nehru in making of the new India.

Obviously, the change in approach was necessitated by the adverse Bihar results that shattered BJP's hopes of augmenting its numerical strength in the upper house of the parliament i.e. Rajya Sabha.

The massive victory in 2014 general elections had encouraged PM Modi and his advisors to assume that they can get  legislations passed in parliament without worrying too much about the opposition as it was reduced to periphery in Lok Sabha. They overlooked the fact that they were in a hopeless minority in Rajya Sabha which has equal rights compared to the lower house in matters of legislating except for money bills.

Read Also: PM Modi reaches out to Sonia, Manmohan to break GST deadlock

In the beginning, Modi government decided to engage non-Congress opposition parties for getting legislations passed in the upper house.  The animosity with Congress had reached to such a level in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections that a victorious BJP under Modi's leadership planned to get legislations passed using the constitutional provision of joint sittings of parliament.

The strategy worked initially as an electorally devastated Congress was unable to lead and guide the opposition benches.

Things changed after Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi returned from his 56-day sabbatical. In order to rejuvenate a moribund Congress, he adopted an aggressive approach and initiated what can be termed as a policy of non-cooperation towards Modi govt.

Rahul perhaps realised that his 44-member contingent in Lok Sabha may not be large enough to stop the passage of but they were more than enough to disrupt the proceedings in the house. And he knew the opposition would have the last laugh in Rajya Sabha even if the govt manages to get the bills passed in the lower house.

The Congress-led opposition didn't give the ruling party a chance to explore the option of calling  joint sittings of parliament. Joint sitting can be called only if a bill is passed by one house and rejected by the other. In Rajya Sabha, the Congress decided not to reject the bill but to send it to select committees that take their own time in coming up with recommendations. The deliberate and inordinate delay by select committees, dominated by opposition parties as they have a clear majority in the upper house, would anyway kill the bill the silently.

The way Congress led opposition was blocking bills in parliament alarmed not only the government but the industries as well. The spectre of ‘policy paralysis' that had become synonymous with UPA-II returned to haunt the mandarins of Modi government.

The desperation among some political leaders reached to a level that some of them started advocating the need for reducing the powers of the upper house that was negating the legislations passed in the lower.  

Amid all these, Bihar Assembly results inflicted severe blow to the hopes of the ruling party which was dreaming of reaching closer to the half-way mark in Rajya Sabha with victories in Bihar and UP Assembly elections. Bihar results made PM Modi understand that if legislations crucial for economic reforms are to be passed then the only way out was to bring on board the largest opposition in Rajya Sabha.

It was this realisation that forced PM Modi to offer an olive branch to Congress and he reached out to Congress President Sonia Gandhi through former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It's yet not clear whether Congress would finally play the ball and support the government on GST.  Everything depends on whether Rahul Gandhi gives his nod for helping out the government.  Off the record, Rahul Gandhi has been indicating that he is miffed over the way PM Modi has tried to ignore him whenever they faced each other. Obviously, PM Modi needs to establish a working relation with prominent opposition leaders, especially Congress.

Some reports suggest that Congress doesn't want GST to be implemented before 2017 . The reason is that GST results in hike in inflation for first two years as experienced by countries who have implemented this. So the calculation of the Congress is that if it's rolled out in 2017 then the resulting inflation would stay till 2019 when the next general elections will take place and it would be electorally advantageous for the Congress.

Nevertheless, PM Modi has won the appreciation even from his opponents for positively engaging the opposition on crucial legislations.

The question here is this – Why did PM Modi wait for an electoral drubbing to establish a communication line with the largest opposition? Would it not have been better and more honourable, had he shown the willingness to address the concerns of the opposition when he was riding on a wave that fetched him  electoral victories from Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand to Jammu and Kashmir?

But as we say, it's better late than never. Modi's critics point out that this dispensation has been reduced to a lame duck government as it lacks the numbers in parliament to execute policy changes.
 
If the Prime Minister wishes to prove his critics wrong then he should further strengthen the process of consultation with the opposition leaders.  He should try to accommodate the concerns of not only the Congress but as many opposition parties as possible. Even a government with a two-thirds majority should always try to evolve a political consensus on matters that affect the future of the country. This is what democracy is all about.

PM Modi would do well to hold more ‘chai pe charcha' with as many opposition leaders as possible. And he needs to do it more frequently.