Gopalkrishna Gandhi weaves the Opposition together

Gopalkrishna Gandhi has managed something that Meira Kumar could not. His name has brought major Opposition players onto one platform. Imagine, Nitish Kumar endorsing his name for the Vice-President’s office in the very first round. It is quite a feat by itself.

Now major Opposition players - Sonia Gandhi from Congress, Mamata Banerjee from Trinamool Congress, Sharad Pawar from Nationalist Congress Party, Lalu Prasad Yadav from the RJD, Akhilesh Yadav from Samajwadi Party, Mayawati from BSP, the Left parties and, above all, Nitish Kumar from JD(U) - have endorsed Gopal Gandhi’s candidature for the second highest position in the country.

Well, India has never beenthis much ideologically divided as it has been with the rise of the Modi government in 2014. The Sangh and the BJP, shedding all inhibitions, are now zealously working to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra, the goal Sangh set for itself even before Independence. It clearly means breaking the well-established constitutional consensus and saying goodbye to the inclusive and liberal India as conceived by our founding fathers.

Hindutva forces may have succeeded to a great extent in achieving their goal. They have managed great electoral successes since 2017. They now control not only the Central government but also major parts of the country with their governments across India, including in the northeast.

It is no mean task, going by the fact that the BJP tally in the 1985 Lok Sabha elections was just two MPs. From just two Lok Sabha MPs to 300-plus Lok Sabha MPs with so many state governments, the BJP has done wonders. They are now implementing their agenda with impunity. You can see their imprint all over, be it legislature, executive, judiciary, media, etc.

But the country has not given up yet like Pakistan. India’s historical reality is asserting itself on the ground every now and then. You look around and you find tremendous opposition to Hindutva forces. Two very recent happenings stand out in this regard.

The #NOTINMYNAME call barely two weeks ago evoked an unbelievable spontaneous response. Thousands marched against mob lynching incidents not only in Delhi but nineteen other cities of India. It was a very significant event as it was a clear ‘no’ to the idea of lynching someone because he was a Muslim. Clearly, inclusive India roared and said enough was enough. Those who took part said a big no to the Hindutva brand of identity politics.

Barely a week or ten days later, over a lakh people came out on the streets in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat. It was a protest rally of textile manufacturers and traders of Surat city in Gujarat. It was completely blacked out by the national media. But videos circulated on social media showed a mammoth crowd. I personally spoke to organisers who confirmed that the textile capital of India was shut on July 8 in protest against the imposition of GST without consulting the stakeholders.

Surat is not the only rally of its kind where over a lakh people marched on the streets against BJP policies. If you look around, you find major protests erupting against the BJP governments across the country. From the Jat quota stir against the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana where thousands paralysed the state in 2016 to the recent farmers’ agitation against the Shivraj Singh Chauhan government in Madhya Pradesh, there have been numerous such events. Dalit marches in Gujarat and Delhi after Una and Saharanpur respectively, for instance, were some other major rallies which expressed disgust at the Hindutva social framework.

People are increasingly hitting the streets. Frankly, there has never been this kind of ferment when people on their own have taken to streets in such large numbers against a government. And the unique thing about all these protests is that none of these are sponsored or organised by any political party or known organisations. They were spontaneous outbursts that led to huge protests.

People are boiling with rage against the Modi government’s policies and hitting streets on their own. It is an unorganised and spontaneous opposition to the forces of Hindutva in various hues and shapes in numerous parts of the country. No organised political party had any role to play in all such movements. It is a unique phenomenon: people taking to streets on their own, standing up on their own to shout out #NOTINMYNAME.

It does not have any parallel in recent times. Even the anti-Emergency movement was woven by veteran freedom fighter Jayaprakash Narayan with the then newly carved out Janata Party platform. Here, there is no platform to climb on to, no political leader leading it. Yet sometimes, middle classes, sometimes Dalits, sometimes farmers and sometimes traders are hitting the streets on their own.

The obvious message is that a wide spectrum of Indian people cutting across caste and community are fed up with the Hindutva polices and are resisting it. But there seems to be a serious mismatch between peoples’ resentment and the Opposition’s ability to translate it into a big movement. There is yet no visible political leadership or no political platform to guide protesters or no serious efforts to build a unified movement based on a clear political agenda. Liberal intelligentsia has now started to grumble at the lack of any such platform.

Here lies the significance of Opposition unity and the urgent need to carve a united Opposition platform. Unless various mutinies are woven into a nationwide protest, a revolution will not happen. And, India, at this point of time, needs nothing short of an ideological revolution with a clear idea for the need to go back to the roots sown by our founding fathers.

It is not happening so far because a Nitish walks out for some strange reason on one issue or the Congress takes an initiative and retreats midway the other time. Nitish Kumar joining ranks on the vice-presidential candidature issue is a positive news for now. But it is a small step. It does not match the mood on the ground where thousands are marching on the streets virtually every other day.

The Opposition needs to gather its wits, shun its ego and form a credible united platform with a clear ideological call to take India back to its basic idea of unity in diversity where intelligentsia, farmers, traders, teachers, youth, women, Dalits, farmers, minorities and all those who do not believe in Hindutva come together.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s name has lit that magic. It is time for the Congress to weave this magic into a united Opposition platform and take it to the people so that thousands do not just march and go back home but also come out on a polling day for a decisive victory against the common adversary.