Circumstances of the 16th Lok Sabha pose new challenges for government and opposition.
The 16th Lok Sabha is formally inaugurated, after being adjourned for a day in the memory of BJP MP and Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde. As many as 315 of its members are first-time entrants to the Lok Sabha. This is a dramatically new Parliament in terms of people, priorities and power balances. For the first time in 30 years, a single party, the BJP, has crossed the halfway mark.
Opposition parties have previously managed to obstruct work, protest and boycott Parliament rather than debating or disproving and rejecting the government’s initiatives. But this time, the opposition will have to fight harder and more imaginatively to make its presence felt. It cannot allow bitterness about the last Lok Sabha to determine its approach. It must realise parliamentary non-cooperation is not an option, given the government’s brute majority.
This time, the opposition must develop new skills, and rely on the force of its argument rather than the pitch of its voice. It must go along with the government on matters where parties share common reformist instincts. Instead of thwarting legislation it had once proposed, merely because they are now on the government agenda, the opposition must press ahead in tandem with the government, debating all aspects of such legislation to improve them.
On other matters, opposition parties must take on a larger role, and speak for constituencies that have been left out of this mandate, to remind the government of its larger obligations. The unusually uniform social composition of Parliament in many ways, with the defeat of parties that provide a platform for Muslims, Dalits, and other disadvantaged groups, calls for greater sensitivity from the parties that have successfully made it to the House — it is up to the people’s representatives to make sure that all interests are fully spoken for.
The government, too, must be careful to ensure that its strength does not end up reducing the space for deliberation and the capacity of the legislature to impose accountability and oversight. It will be tested not just for the number of bills it passes, but for how considered and democratic its legislative approach is.
