By Nitya Chakraborty
The INDIA Bloc constituents are finally meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, July 19 to discuss the strategy for the monsoon session of the Parliament beginning on July 21 as also an assessment of the developments in the country including increasing threat to the electoral democracy in the third term of Narendra Modi’s India.
The last full meeting of the India Bloc was held on June 5, the day after the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha election results on June 4. The discussions took place in a mood of optimism as the BJP’s tally came down from the earlier level of 303 to 240 in 2024 polls. Though Narendra Modi formed his NDA government for the consecutive third term with the help of other allies including JD(U) and TDP, the reduction of 63 seats in BJP’s Lok Sabha tally was a positive omen for the opposition INDIA Bloc. The Bloc was hopeful of carrying on this process in the coming state assembly elections.
But the electoral results since the last Lok Sabha elections have come as a big disappointment to the India Bloc. NDA has won the assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra neutralizing the gains of the Congress and other partners in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Further, the BJP also made a clean sweep of the by polls in Uttar Pradesh taking over the seating seats of the Samajwadi Party. Only in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress bucked the trend by retaining all the seats and defeating the BJP even in its seating seats.
In this background, the most important assembly election is taking place in Bihar in October/November this year which has assumed crucial importance for the survival of electoral democracy in India. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls initiated in Bihar by the Election Commission of India (ECI) at the instance of the Union Home Ministry is intended to weed out the names of a huge number of minorities and poor people from the voters list on the plea of non-submission of relevant documents including new ones. Many former chief election commissioners have questioned this SIR and the ECI’s bid to hurry up with the process which has so many complications.
The SIR is politically motivated. It is the brain child of the BJP’s think tank, not the ECI. The ECI is only carrying out the agenda despite Supreme Court’s caustic observations in its hearing on July 10. The Booth Level Officers (BLO) are carrying on SIR without taking note of the Supreme Court bench observations though the next hearing is scheduled on July 28. The experiment by the Home Ministry and the ECI on Bihar is being followed nationally and the next two important targets are West Bengal and Assam. Four states-West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are going for assembly elections in March/April next year apart from Puducherry. Of these states, the SIR will have special consequences in Bengal and Assam as both states contain large number of minorities who are the target of BJP. In Bengal, the BJP leader Subhendu Adhikari has started a campaign that the Aadhaar and election identity card should not be recognized in respect of Muslims as these were ‘forged’. In fact, he is demanding disenfranchisement of the Muslims in the 2026 assembly polls.
In Assam, the situation is more serious right now. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has launched a war against the minorities in his state and he is spreading this menace to the other north eastern states. Sharma is the convenor of the NE region on behalf of the BJP leadership. The state government has recommended deportation of a large number of minorities though the legal cases are continuing. The problem is that the targeted persons are very poor and they have little means to get legal assistance to fight the state government machinery. On Thursday, a person belonging to the minority community was killed and many injured during the process of eviction in Assam’s Goalpara.
All these developments have serious consequences for the future of parliamentary democracy based on the core values of the Indian constitution. Bihar is the beginning, if this bid succeeds in Bihar, the Narendra Modi government will implement the SIR with vengeance in Bengal and Assam. INDIA Bloc has to devote lot of time on this SIR issue and Bihar elections. All efforts must be taken to ensure that the SIR is stayed by the Supreme Court bench on July 28 hearing. If SC does not stay the SIR, the bench has to ensure that the poor and the minorities get due time and opportunities to produce their identity cards. This should be written, not oral.
The Bihar elections results can be a turning point in the national politics. There are enough possibility of the Mahagathbandhan winning in Bihar in the next polls by year end if the constituents keep a strict vigil on the rolls revision process and prevent any bid by the BJP and RSS cadres to delete the names of the genuine citizens of the state belonging to the minorities and the Dalits. The recent RSS conclave has decided to give all attention on Bihar elections. As a consequence, a large number of RSS pracharaks are now engaged in rolls revision work. Their aim is to delete the names of minorities from the list as much as possible.
The functioning of the INDIA Bloc needs to be discussed if the opposition parties want the Bloc to be a dynamic and vibrant body to take on the BJP. There is need for a permanent secretariat and chief coordinator or convenor. For more than a year, the INDIA Bloc meeting was not called just because the Congress Party leaders did not feel the need. Now suddenly, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi contacted the leaders and scheduled the meeting in two day’s notice. This is no way of running such an important body which wants to replace the BJP led government. There should be some operational norms for the INDIA Bloc. The Saturday meeting, though through video, should decide on that.
But right now, all the efforts will have to be on defeating NDA in Bihar in October/ November polls and this is linked with consistent fight against the BJP inspired ECI moves to remove the names of the voters who are supposed to vote for the INDIA Bloc in Bihar elections. This is the primary task of the INDIA Bloc parties, though the leaders are expected to raise other issues in Parliament during the monsoon session including India’s diplomatic isolation in the recent days, rise in unemployment level and the demands of the central trade unions on the basis of which the general strike was observed on July 9. (IPA Service)