The decision of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to appoint Mr Lal Krishna Advani as its “working” chairperson, in the place of an ailing Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, could not have come a day sooner. It is time the main opposition alliance revived itself, stopped moping and whining about last year’s defeat and started playing the role of a constructive and purposive opposition. It is possible that the NDA has woken up to the need for a more active leadership after watching the discomfort of some of the allies of the Congress party in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). But even if Mr Sharad Pawar, Mr Karunanidhi, Ms Mamata Banerjee and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav or Ms Mayawati come on board, it may still be difficult for the BJP to unseat the UPA government. While the numbers in the Lok Sabha do ensure stability of the government, the fact is that UPA-II has not been able to get its act together — both as a coalition in its present avatar and as a government. Perhaps a more credible and purposive opposition can breathe life into the ruling coalition and get the government moving. The Congress party and its allies have already wasted more than six months in office and an impression is gaining ground that a lacklustre opposition has induced complacency in the ruling coalition. The President’s Address to the budget session of Parliament reads like a report card of UPA-I rather than a plan of action of UPA-II. Far too much about what is already being implemented, not enough about what the government proposes to do in the coming year.
This is not surprising because apart from a handful of senior ministers, most others give the impression of either not having settled down to work, or not being focused on it. The management of inflation and the food economy is only one glaring example of waywardness in policy. The country has heard that a minister for chemicals and fertilisers exists only after he opposed the fertiliser subsidy cut. Important economic ministries seem to lack the required high quality leadership, both political and administrative. In defence and foreign affairs, we have had more controversies than initiatives. Apart from inadequacies in governance and policy-making, the political management of the ruling coalition has also been unimpressive. In Andhra Pradesh, the Congress party seems to have no clue about how to deal with a situation it created on its own in the one state in which it secured a resounding victory. In Maharashtra, its government seems to lack vision and maturity. A large part of this inertia in government and in the ruling coalition is a product of electoral hubris. But so far the sorry state of the ruling coalition has only been matched by the even sorrier state of the opposition alliance. It is against this dismal background that the budget session of Parliament has convened. But the NDA needs more than a working chairperson. It needs an agenda and a shadow cabinet to sound more credible. Rather than shout, walkout and disrupt Parliament, it must use the budget session purposefully so that the interests of the people and the economy are better served.
