Government-Opposition exchanges grow after COVID-19 through letters, phone calls, video conferencing

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held a video interaction with floor leaders of 16 political parties on the issue of COVID-19 lockdown, this was not an isolated interaction.

In the last one month, Modi and Opposition parties have held over a dozen interactions. The exchanges between the two sides have happened through video conferencing, phone calls and even the age-old medium of writing letters. The relationship between the government and the Opposition has hardly been that interactive in the past.

Despite occasional sparring in political parties in the country, even the arch-rivals of various parties have been interacting with each other to work out an effective response to the menace.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally called all several Opposition leaders including bete noire Sonia Gandhi, the incumbent President of Congress.

Sonia, who has generally maintained a distance from the government wrote at least three letters to the Prime Ministers. Many other Opposition leaders including a trenchant critic of Modi like Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh and Shashi Tharoor wrote letters to him.

In the last letter on April 7, Sonia Gandhi also gave five suggestions to Modi on COVID-19 combat strategy after the Prime Minister sought suggestions from all parties. Earlier on March 26 also, she had written a letter to the Prime Minister, lending support to his decision on a 21-day nationwide lockdown to fight the disease. On March 24, she had written the first letter to the Prime Minister.

Rahul Gandhi had written to PM Modi on March 29, saying Congress is standing with the government in the fight against coronavirus and also highlighting the confusion due to sudden announcement of the lockdown.

In the all-party meeting on Wednesday, Modi praised the efforts of state governments working together with the Centre in this fight against the pandemic. He noted that the country has witnessed constructive and positive politics through the coming together of all sections of the polity to present a united front in this battle.

Leaders from other parties, mostly from the Opposition also thanked the Prime Minister for the meeting, appreciated the timely measures taken by him and said that the entire country is standing united behind him during the crisis.

Modi thanked the leaders for their constructive suggestions and feedback, adding that their commitment to assist the government in this battle reaffirms the democratic foundations of the country and the spirit of cooperative federalism.

On April 5, as the challenge surmounted, Modi widened the ambit of political discussions and dialled Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi, two former Presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, two former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda, three former Chief Ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav, his son Akhilesh Yadav and Parkash Singh Badal, three incumbent Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee Naveen Patnaik and K Chandrasekhar Rao (Telangana) and DMK leader M K Stalin.

He also interacted with all Chief Ministers first on March 20, telling them that the states and Centre must work together to combat the pandemic. This first formal interaction of the Prime Minister with Chief Ministers including many from the Opposition-ruled states set the ball rolling for a coordinated Centre-state strategy to combat the disease. Modi again spoke to Chief Ministers on April 2 to bolster efforts to tackle COVID-19.

He will be doing a third video conferencing with all Chief Ministers on April 11 as the deadline for 21-day lockdown on April 14 nears. In this meeting, he will take a final call on whether or not to extend the lockdown and again it is the coordination aspect, which will play a key role in deciding the future roadmap.