DC Edit | INDIA Bloc Must Decide on Issues, Cong Can’t Take Call

The opinion of Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah that it does not share the opinion of the Congress on vote theft, an issue the latter has focused all its energies on of late, betrays lack of consensus on issues of critical importance within the INDIA alliance. Apparently, the Congress’ view is at complete variance with the position of several of the alliance partners. Mr Abdullah’s reference came a day after the Congress held a massive rally in the capital and alleged that the Election Commission is colluding with the Union government in facilitating vote theft and undermining the electoral process.

The NCP, too, has indicated its aloofness from the Congress agenda of questioning the use of electronic voting machines. The party is alright with the EVMs and proposes that the INDIA bloc rather concentrate on issues that affect people’s day-to-day lives.

It may be remembered that the Congress has been spending most of its energies of late on this single topic of vote theft as the party feels it amounts to undermining the very idea of electoral democracy. The party also feels that the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls which is being carried out across the country is also part of a grand scheme that will cumulatively disenfranchise a massive number of people. Defending the integrity of the electoral process is the toughest challenge of the time and hence should top the Opposition agenda, according to the party.

The Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal would largely vouch for this initiative of the INDIA bloc and have vowed to stand by it, and so have the Left parties. The DMK, a key partner in the alliance, is also part of the Congress campaign on vote theft. But the Trinamul Congress is fighting its own war against SIR.

It cannot be that Mr Abdullah does not understand the importance of the issue that the Congress has been raising. So his dissent must be seen as an expression of the disappointment that has set in inside the Opposition bloc on the lack of a consultation process before arriving at a decision concerning strategy and programmes to be adopted by the bloc. Mr Abdullah’s previous reference that the INDIA bloc was on a life support system must in fact be read in conjunction with the latest outburst. One should not lose sight of the lone battle the National Conference has been fighting for the restoration of the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir. Indeed, that should have been on the INDIA bloc’s agenda.

Taken together, the responses of the alliance partners of the INDIA bloc portray a picture of a house unnecessarily divided. It now falls upon the shoulders of no party other than the Congress to take the lead in instilling a sense of unity of purpose within the alliance and make it a political platform with the potential to strike when an opportunity lands. Indeed, it’s time that the Congress got its act together and helped the alliance do the same.