The 17th Parliament has begun on an optimistic note. In its first substantive business on Wednesday, rancour and bitterness was absent when the Lok Sabha elected Om Birla, the BJP member from Kota, Rajasthan, as Speaker. He succeeds Sumitra Mahajan, the BJP member from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, who did not contest the poll. Birla, a three-term legislator in Rajasthan now elected to the Lok Sabha for the second successive term, is a relative unknown in the national politics.
Yet, his anonymity and clean reputation can stand him in good stead in conducting the proceedings of the House of the People. Speculation over likely candidates for the Speaker’s post did not include Birla’s name. No one had a clue that Modi will spring such a surprise. But, it seems, it has become second nature to him. Probably picking relatively low-profile party colleagues for key posts ensures total personal loyalty as well as a break from the conventional power structures within the Sangh parivar. The prime minister is shaping the BJP in his own lights. However, what is encouraging is that Birla drew support from all across the entire spectrum of parties represented in the House. Not only did all the constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance support him, but other groups not part of the ruling combine such as YSR Congress, BJD, DMK, and, above all, the Congress Party, endorsed the BJP candidate for the Speaker’s post. The decision not to offer a token fight by the vastly truncated UPA might be a reflection of the reality of numbers, but, nonetheless, it needs to be appreciated.
Avoiding bad vibes so soon after the people have given the Modi-led NDA such an overwhelming mandate indicates that the Opposition is coming to terms with its woeful state. While Birla thanked members for the trust reposed in him by all sides of the House, and promised to be an impartial guardian of the House, to protect its prestige, traditions and sovereignty, the Prime Minister and other group leaders too expressed the hope that he would live up to the expectations of the members. Sounding a note of caution, Modi told the newly-elected Speaker that often the proceedings tended to be raucous and rancorous but he would need to retain equanimity and independence to steer the House out of potential logjams and crises.
The newly-anointed leader of the Congress group in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chow dhury, the fifth term MP from Murshidabad, West Bengal, in his remarks welcoming Birla’s election as the Speaker, did try to inject an element of partisanship when he referred to the farmers’ distress and joblessness, attracting a loud put-down from the treasury benches who shouted that this was not the occasion to rake up these issues. Indeed, the nomination of Chowdhry as the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha — the party lacks the numbers to qualify for a formal post of the Leader of the Opposition — signals that the Gandhis continue to be very much in control despite the party’s stunning rejection in last month’s poll.
First, refusal of Rahul Gandhi to take up the high-profile post — and then try and make something of it by proving himself as a worthy and full-time parliamentarian — reflects the cul-de-sac in which the party finds itself. Its dilemma is that neither the party can afford to get rid of the Gandhis for fear of fragmenting into various rival groups, nor are the Gandhis ready to lead from the front. It is this failure that has resulted in the Gandhis picking Chowdhry, a viscerally anti-Mamata Banerjee street-fighter of a politician from Murshidabad, to front the party in the Lok Sabha.
Chowdhary had got into trouble in the last House but was saved from disciplinary action by the Speaker after an appeal from a host of Opposition leaders. But the insecurity of the Gandhis in not opting for a more articulate member, say, Manish Tiwari, or even Shashi Tharoor, is all too obvious. Given that the Congress Party in West Bengal is completely marginalised, winning two of the 42 seats in the State due to the personal hold of the winners, Choudhary’s selection as the party leader in the Lok Sabha may not stop a further depletion of its ranks in West Bengal.
Besides, if the objective was to do business with Mamta Banerjee in the near future, particularly given that both see in the ascendant BJP a huge existentialist threat, Chowdhry was the wrong choice for a relatively high-profile post. Meanwhile, though Rahul continues to sit on the front bench along with his mother, Sonia Gandhi, in the Lok Sabha, no clarity has been forthcoming from him or his party over the status of his resignation as Congress chief.
