As a country, it is true that India is a country of contradictions, about which Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi had said that it is a ‘harmonizer of opposites’ and a ‘combination of cultures’. But when parties with different cultures and opposing views come together or form an alliance just out of political compulsion, then politics is not easy for them. The alliance of opposition parties ‘India’ is similarly a collection of parties with conflicting ideologies, due to which difficulties arise in every election. Along with ideological difficulties comes political difficulties also. Parties face difficulty in campaigning and problems in raising issues. Despite this, the alliance performed well in the Lok Sabha elections. But this problem comes to the fore more vocally in state elections.
For example, in the Maharashtra elections, the opposition alliance Mahavikas Aghadi is facing similar ideological and political difficulties due to its contradictions. BJP is aware of the fault lines between the parties in the alliance, hence it is raising issues related to the same and putting the parties in the dock. BJP leaders have said in the election campaign that if Uddhav Thackeray is contesting elections with Congress, can he get Congress leaders to praise his late father Bal Thackeray? This is a big question.
No Congress leader speaks a single word about Bal Thackeray, while leaders of BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena are praising Bal Thackeray in every meeting. The contradiction between Congress and Uddhav’s party over Bal Thackeray may not cause loss to Uddhav Thackeray but may cause loss to Congress. Congress candidates may not get the votes of Shiv Sainiks. Congress is contesting only 10 out of 36 seats in Mumbai, there it may face difficulty.
Similarly, BJP has found another faultline in the form of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Congress leaders cannot even say anything on Savarkar. That’s why BJP has challenged Uddhav Thackeray to get Rahul Gandhi to praise Maratha icon Savarkar. Rahul or any Congress leader cannot praise Savarkar. But the irony is that Congress cannot even attack Savarkar, which it often does. Now it is neither heard in the election campaign nor seen on social media that Savarkar was a brave warrior. Congress leaders have maintained silence. The question is that if Congress did not like Bal Thackeray’s politics or Savarkar was an apologist for him, then there should not be any ideological conflict in this?
It was not a matter of ideological honesty that if they went out of Maharashtra or if there were no elections, they would criticize Savarkar and when there were elections in Maharashtra, they remained silent on Savarkar or used to criticize Bal Thackeray and when there was coordination with Uddhav, Bal Become silent on Thackeray? Parties think that if the common voter does not understand these nuances or if they throw dust in his eyes, then it is his misunderstanding. Voters know where the parties are cheating them.
One of the ideological fault lines of the ‘India’ block in both the Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections is regarding Article 370. BJP leaders are openly saying in both the states that their central government has ended it and it can never come back. Amit Shah even said that even the fourth generation of Rahul Gandhi will not be able to bring it back. Interestingly, apart from Congress, be it Uddhav Thackeray in Maharashtra or Sharad Pawar and Hemant Soren in Jharkhand or Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav, no leader is saying anything on the issue of Article 370.
Do these parties have such ideological clarity that they should come forward and say that removing Article 370 was the right decision and they too are with it or should they say that removing it was a wrong decision and when our government is formed, we will bring it back? The parties of ‘India’ block are not saying any of these things. They are feeling that if they remain silent then both the supporters and opponents of Article 370 will be defeated, then this is a misunderstanding. It is noteworthy that Uddhav Thackeray’s party was openly with the decision of the Central Government but now its leaders are also silent because they feel that they will get Muslim votes because of Congress and Sharad Pawar. Think, what politics will result from such ideological dishonesty?
There is also a contradiction regarding the coordination between the parties of the opposition alliance, due to which they suffer losses in electoral politics. This is because most of the regional parties included in the ‘India’ block are not ready to give up their interest in the state elections. Like CPM does not have to coordinate with Congress in Kerala, but the main contest is against Congress itself. Think, in such a situation, when assembly elections will be held in Kerala and West Bengal in 2026, what will both the parties do? Will both fight against each other in Kerala and coordinate in Bengal? Its result is visible in the 2021 elections.
In West Bengal, both the parties were completely wiped out, while in Kerala too, BJP gained a foothold on their land. Similarly, in Delhi, both Congress and Aam Aadmi Party did not have any Lok Sabha MP, so both of them coordinated but in Punjab, both of them fought against each other. In the Haryana Assembly elections held just last month, Aam Aadmi Party contested separately and got about two percent of the votes. This was also one of the reasons for the defeat of Congress. So, Congress has strange relations with Communist parties, Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. At some places there is coordination and at some places everyone attacks each other. The public understands this. Due to lack of clarity in ideological and political alliance, ‘India’ block has to suffer losses in elections and may have to suffer in future also.
This kind of ambiguity is generally less visible in the BJP-led NDA than in the opposition alliance. His coalition parties generally agree with his agenda. Even if there is opposition on a few issues, it is not so big that it causes harm. Secondly, coordination also takes place in states with strong influence of regional parties. It does not happen that where regional parties are strong, there is fighting and where the influence of both is less, there is coordination. It has coordination with TDP in Andhra Pradesh and with JDU in Bihar, so everyone fought together in these two states.
If these parties had fought separately in these states, there would have been loss. But if TDP fights in Telangana or JDU fights in Uttar Pradesh, it will not cause any significant loss to BJP. On the contrary, Congress has to fight with the Left in Kerala, Trinamool Congress in Bengal and Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab. If the parties of the ‘India’ block really have to compete with the NDA, then both ideological and political unity will have to be created and all contradictions will have to be removed. Only when everyone agrees on each other’s core agenda will they be able to send a message to the voters.