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Journalism of Courage
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s decision to abstain from the discussion as well as voting on the contentious National Capital Territory (NCT) Amendment Bill, if it comes up during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, is not the first instance in recent months when the Mayawati-led party has deviated from the Opposition parties’ broadly common position against the BJP-led Centre’s various moves.
The NCT Amendment Bill is meant to replace the contentious Delhi ordinance promulgated by the Centre to take over services from the Delhi government. With the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP rallying the Opposition parties against the ordinance, the issue has turned into a major bone of contention between the Opposition bloc and the Narendra Modi government.
On several issues over the last one year, the BSP’s position has been contradictory to the Opposition’s stand, which dented the latter’s moves against the BJP to a degree.
The BSP was not invited in the 16 Opposition parties’ first joint meeting that was held in Patna on June 23. A senior Janata Dal (United) functionary had then said that Mayawati was not invited because she never expressed her wish to be part of Opposition unity. “Any wish to join the Opposition unity was never expressed by BSP side. Hence BSP president has not been invited. On many occasions, BSP criticised Congress more than BJP… Only those parties and leaders have been invited who are ready to make a front against the BJP, fight against BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha elections and take initiatives for Opposition unity,” a JD(U) leader said.
The BSP was also not invited to the second joint meeting of the Opposition, held in Bangalore on July 17-18, which involved 26 parties.
Ahead of the Patna conclave, Mayawati, in a statement, had said that her party was keeping a watch on the activities that the Opposition parties were taking up to deal with the situation created by the BJP government.
The BSP chief had then also questioned the “seriousness” of the Opposition unity attempts undertaken by Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, saying “Dil mile na mile, haath milate rahiye (whether the hearts are connected or not, just keep shaking hands)”.
In September last year, when Nitish had met various senior Opposition leaders to bring them on an anti-BJP platform, Mayawati’s name was missing in the list of leaders he met.
In May this year, when more than 20 Opposition parties had announced the boycott of the inauguration of the new Parliament building over the absence of President Droupadi Murmu from the event, Mayawati had welcomed its inauguration by Prime Minister Modi. She had said it was unfair to boycott the ceremony and that the Modi government has the right to unveil the new Parliament as they have built it.
Mayawati had been invited to the new Parliament’s inauguration function but she did not attend it owing to her “pre-scheduled engagements including the review meetings of the BSP organisation”.
“Boycott is unfair for not getting the new Parliament inaugurated by President Droupadi Murmu. The government has made it, so it has the right to unveil it. It is also unfair to link this with tribal women’s respect. They (Opposition) should have thought of this while fielding a candidate (in the Presidential poll) against her (Murmu) rather than electing her unopposed,” Mayawati had then stated.
In the Presidential poll in July last year, the BSP had backed BJP-led NDA’s candidate Droupadi Murmu, who was elected to become the first tribal to assume the country’s highest office.
Mayawati had then hit out at the Opposition parties for not inviting the BSP to the meetings where the names of their probable presidential candidates were discussed before they agreed to field former Union minister Yashwant Sinha against Murmu.
She had called the Opposition’s attitude “anti-BSP” and “casteist”. She, however, also claimed that the BSP’s decision to support Murmu was taken neither to favour the NDA nor to oppose the UPA. “Keeping in mind the party and its movement, a decision has been taken to make a hardworking and qualified woman from tribal community the President of the country,” she said.
In the Vice-Presidential election held in August last year, Mayawati announced her party’s support to the NDA’s candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar. She had then tweeted, “In view of the larger public interest and party’s own movement, the BSP has decided to extend its support to Jagdeep Dhankhar in the election for the post of Vice President…”
On January 15 this year, Mayawati, while commenting on Opposition unity, said the BSP’s ideology was different from that of other Opposition parties and that her party will contest the elections alone without entering into any alliance. She repeated this position on July 19, claiming that her party would maintain a distance from both the NDA and the Opposition’s INDIA alliance.
On June 28, when the Bhim Army chief and Azad Samaj Party president, Chandrashekhar Aazad, was shot at by several assailants in Saharanpur, the Opposition parties strongly condemned the incident and questioned the law and order situation in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, but Mayawati refrained from making any comments over it. Chandrashekhar is currently in talks with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for an alliance for the 2024 polls.
