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It is in the Rajya Sabha that the Congress party has finally found its moorings in the Opposition, in the forefront of demanding accountability from the ruling party and government.
Its much-depleted bench in the Lok Sabha has largely muzzled its voice, in the face of an overwhelming ruling party majority.
In the indirectly elected House, however, the party has been, in recent days, loudly protesting against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's "polarisation attempts and communal agenda", beating off government attempts to get it into clearing Bills nurtured during its own United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition regime.
Till this week, the Congress approach had been conciliatory, rather than combative. It led to pressure from the ranks to speak up. There was a clear split in the Rajya Sabha between those who'd been in the earlier government as ministers, such as Anand Sharma, and those like party General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry who demanded the Congress be a more combative Opposition.
Mistry is believed to be close to party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, who's believed to favour this approach.
In addition, the other opposition parties made it clear to Congress President Sonia Gandhi that should it break the nine-party unity to clear the government's economic reform Bills, this would close all doors for united action in the future.
Till last week, when the insurance amendment Bill was adopted by a Rajya Sabha select committee, the Congress backed it (deputy leader of the Opposition, Anand Sharma, was a committee member) wholly, despite dissent from the Trinamool Congress, JD (U) and Left parties. The Congress was slated to support the government in getting the Bill cleared in this session.
However, there were always dissenting voices within the Congress who felt they should not "hand it on a platter to the BJP, which had held up this same Bill for years during the UPA regime".
Matters came to a head when Mistry threatened to write a formal letter to the high command against the likes of Sharma, whom he said was acting against the majority opinion of members. Others like chief whip Satyavrat Chaturvedi were in favour of taking on the government.
Mistry made this public to other seniors and now, with the backing of Rahul Gandhi, the party has decided not to give the Bill a go-ahead in this session at least.
These developments coincided with the forging of a nine-party unity in the Rajya Sabha, triggered by the 'religious conversion' issue.
Saying it was part of the BJP's "larger polarising agenda", the Left, TMC and Janata parties all demanded, with the Congress, that the PM come to the house and himself reply to a debate on the issue, without which the House would not function.
Sensing the Congress was likely to break ranks on the insurance Bill, JD (U) stalwarts Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar conveyed to the Congress president the price her party would then have to pay in hardening of their attitudes. It was also conveyed that there was no reason for the Congress to play ball with a party which, when it was in opposition, had derailed Parliament's functioning.
A Congress leader said, "When you have arch rivals Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party, the Left and the TMC, all on the same page, there is little option for the Congress but to stick together." The freeze in the Rajya Sabha has persisted for five days and shows no signs of thawing in the last two remaining days of business.
