By Sushil Kutty
MPs fainted. Probably no breakfast! Not even a glass of water. Doctors would recommend orange or mausambi juice. Avocado would have done the trick. Any number of smoothies. The best would have been an upma breakfast; perhaps a boiled egg along with butter-toast!
Yummy! But no, some of the opposition MPs, had come prepared to “faint”, a spell of unconsciousness would do good for the march from Parliament House to Nirvachan Sadan. SIR was like wildfire in a California forest. Opposition MPs in the Monsoon Session rained ire.
The Opposition has declared the Election Commission the handmaiden of the Modi government, its decisions hostage to the government’s diktats. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi kept saying “ye aam aadmi ki ladai hai”, his charge of “Vote Chori” giving a new thrust and dimension to the protest, with evidence to prove.
The media was calling the Parliament-to-Nirvachan Sadan protest march “live Monsoon Sadan” though the action was all outside the Parliament complex. The media has its own eye of presenting news and niceties often get misplaced. The media did, however, have eyes for the more prominent players.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Wayanad MP, for instance, who doesn’t miss an opportunity to cast verbal arrows at the BJP and the Modi government, specifically targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Priyanka Vadra was among those who were “detained” by the Delhi Police along with a copy of the Constitution of India.
Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, NCP leader Sharad Pawar. and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge made their presence evident. Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor did not baulk from protesting Bihar’s SIR and “voter fraud in the 2024 polls.”
The Delhi Police said the Opposition MPs hadn’t sought formal permission for the march nor was permission given. But with permission, it might have been a more orderly protest with a couple of pit-stops and a peaceful march which wouldn’t have suited the Opposition’s motive for the march.
There wouldn’t have been mass arrests and detention, photo-ops and on the spot live television bytes. There’s nothing less elevating than a protest march with no fireworks! TMC MP Mitali Bagh wouldn’t have fainted. She was helped up by a clutch of MPs including Rahul Gandhi, whose duties as an LoP includes a diverse set of skills.
It is that time of the year. Congress leader Randeep Surjewala spoke for the LoP. “Prison bars won’t stop Rahul Gandhi and (the) Opposition” after the Delhi Police detained the opposition MPs. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra gave no sign of being faint-hearted. Obviously, they didn’t come empty-stomach!
Shashi Tharoor must have had “thatu-dosa and kaapi”. Tharoor said the Election Commission’s “credibility depended on removing public doubts”. Was the protest march a success, did it help in removing public doubts? Perhaps yes, more than all the ruckus and pandemonium in Parliament. There is nothing like street veto.
The media and that includes the so-called ‘Godi Media’ cannot afford to look askance and act like passing ships in the night. Losing credibility is not only a politician/political party’s lot but also part and parcel of media standing. So Priyanka Gandhi Vadra raised slogans and the media kept note.
Bihar’s SIR was being heard all over India. Rahul Gandhi was hollering “yeh aam aadmi ki ladai hai, hume pure and saaf electoral list chahiye”. Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav sat on the blacktop. Kharge and Sharad Pawar sat on chairs! And Akhilesh Yadav jumped a barricade to give Delhi Police the dodge.
Dimple Yadav accused the EC of turning a blind eye to “booth capturing” in the UP by-elections.
Rahul Gandhi kept repeating “Ye Constitution ki ladai hai”, all the way from the “Makar Dwar” to on the road to Nirvachan Sadan. For half an hour the opposition MPs sat on the road even as NDA leaders branded them irresponsible and trying to mislead the “aam aadmi”. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee imposed on the INDIA bloc to accommodate AAP in the protest as AAP was no longer in the INDI-Alliance.
The JDU said SIR was not an issue in Bihar and JD(U) MPs slammed critics for the “hue and cry” in Delhi. Both Houses saw quiet prevailing though the presiding officers resorted to a couple of adjournments. The beginning of the day’s proceedings, however, was raucous. Who doesn’t know that public money comes cheap?
But then the SIR row cannot be trifled with. The Opposition has its reasons for opposing SIR, especially when SIR will be moving on to other states going to polls in 2026, like West Bengal and the INDIA bloc is alleging that SIR was tantamount to culling voters from the electoral rolls and a BJP-EC unholy nexus.
A report said the EC had agreed to meet the Congress later in the day. Did the protest march rattle the Election Commission? The Congress had made a request for “interaction”. Interestingly, the protest march came on the day Prime Minister Modi inaugurated “MP housing”, which will save the government ₹1,500 crore annually. The special MP flats have all the amenities an MP might wish for and some which he might not!
The Modi government is not dealing with slum-dwellers. For the Modi government, the protest march didn’t have anything to do with the “aam aadmi”, whose jhuggi-jhopri are falling like ninepins, razed to the ground by bulldozers, the names of thousands of them deleted from voters’ lists! From ‘SIR with Love’ isn’t the “aam aadmi’s” lot, whether in housing or in elections. (IPA Service)
