Aggressive Modi set to push ahead govt's plan

There is just one impression of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament. Both the opposition and BJP leaders agree: He remains as aggressive as he was in the run-up to the elections, retains his political combativeness and determined to push his government’s plans ahead. Secondly, more than getting fixated on niceties, which eventually may not earn him any new friends, Modi is more than determined to get on with what he considers are his government’s priorities in the face of a determined opposition that would like to remind the BJP what it did it to previous government’s parliamentary agenda when it sat in the opposition benches. Thirdly, Modi wants BJP ministers and members of Parliament (MPs) to follow his style: Do their home work, come convinced to Parliament that their government is not doing anything wrong but earnestly seeking solutions to many problems that landed on its lap because of previous governments’ decisions and practices.

The central factor to the narrative is the fact that Modi is severely handicapped because of absence of numbers on his government’s side in the upper house of Parliament – the Rajya Sabha.

Even in the winter session of Parliament, the government could not help publicly acknowledging this aspect. The opposition had refused to allow the Rajya Sabha to function for days, demanding Modi answer for provocative statements of Hindu hardliners. Congress leader Anand Sharma accused the government of being “arrogant.” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley responded that while the Lok Sabha was functioning, it is only the Rajya Sabha that is not, which means it is not the arrogance of the government, but the “arrogance of numbers” (of the opposition) that is stalling the House. Sitaram Yechury (CPM) shot back: The Lok Sabha was functioning because of the “tyranny of the majority.”

Naturally, the first opportunity they got, the opposition leaders joined hands to deliver a huge embarrassment by forcing an amendment to the motion of thanks on the President’s address to amplify their charge that Modi’s regime had failed to curb high-level corruption and bring back black money stashed abroad.

The idea to bring an amendment in the Rajya Sabha had been brewing between six parties – the Congress, Janata Dal (United), Left, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party. The last push was given by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee who agreed to back an amendment brought by the CPI(M) as the opposition rebuffed parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu’s pleas not to press for it.

There was little comfort for the government benches that shortly before the vote the prime minister had delivered a forceful speech or that this was not the first time but the fourth time in the Rajya Sabha's history that an amendment moved by the opposition to the motion of thanks to the President's address has been passed. The previous times such a thing happened was on January 30, 1980, during Janata Party rule, then on December 29, 1989, during V P Singh-led National Front and third time on March 12, 2001 when Vajpayee-led NDA government was in power.

The larger message was that a tough task lies ahead for the government on the contentious bills like the Land Acquisition Bill and the Insurance Bill. It is no surprise that, in the first public meeting in MP after his parliamentary speeches last week, Modi made his pitch for the Land Acquisition Bill, which faces uncertain future.

He argued that the opposition was using its majority in the upper house of Parliament – the Rajya Sabha – to stall the country’s progress. The previous government had passed a law that was anti-farmer and anti-development, and it was essential to change it to get land for schools, roads and hospitals and factories.

Those who watched Modi’s replies to the debates in the Lok Sabha on February 27 and in the Rajya Sabha on March 3 have also had this to say: The prime minister is always focused on a larger audience outside Parliament; he is never one moment away from his strategy of engaging and convincing the masses that his government is doing the right thing and, of course, the opposition is in the wrong.

Modi’s strategists, however, disagree that he is just looking for a fight, pointing to his repeated assertions in the course of his speeches in Parliament, for the opposition to come with alternative solutions to what his government has proposed rather than handing him a tag that his government is “pro-rich and pro-corporate.”

Some BJP MPs, who are first timers from Uttar Pradesh, have candidly conveyed their fears about the land acquisition bill in the presence of Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and other senior ministers at a dinner meet. That should see Modi and several ministers revisiting their strategy and engaging the opposition and even their own ranks before bills like the land acquisition bill are brought in the Lok Sabha first and then later in the Rajya Sabha.

Should Modi, perhaps, adopt a more conciliatory approach to the extent possible? That he has chosen not to do so is not because of lack of political acumen – as he himself chided the opposition in Parliament – but because he thinks offering the olive branch won’t help, say some ministers. But one did see a change in Modi’s approach. After refusing to bow to the opposition pressure for some days, he denounced communalism and asserted that his government stood for unity.