‘Let’s do Chinese food,’ I said to my two friends on a Saturday night, ‘and then watch Gadar 2 at the cinema nearby.’ We were making plans for the weekend.
‘No, Chinese food has MSG, bad for you,’ one of my friends replied.
‘And Gadar 2 is too in your face. Not my type of film,’ said another.
‘Okay, let’s eat Chole Bhature and then watch stand-up comedy,’ I said.
‘No too many calories,’ said my friend. ‘I don’t like stand-up comedy,’ said the other.
I proposed three other ideas. All of them were shot down, with perfectly valid criticisms.
Finally, I had to ask my friends, ‘okay, so what should we do? What’s your plan?’
Both looked at each other.
‘I don’t know,’ said one. Eat something nice.’
‘Yeah, and do something cool and fun,’ said the other.
‘But what exactly?’ I said.
‘Just whatever,’ one said. The other went quiet and shrugged his shoulders.
This exactly seems to be the issue with the newly formed I.N.D.I.A. (On a side note, it is a clever name, but it can get hard to communicate. One is always tempted to call it the INDIA Alliance, even though the A already stands for alliance. Just as it isn’t the JEE Exam, but just JEE). The INDIA parties have done a fairly good job of coming together and taking group photos. Members are also good at criticizing the BJP government. They particularly have sharpened their attack at the PM. Social media game of taking jibes at the BJP has improved. However, the alliance still resembles the set of friends I was making plans with. Shooting down ideas, criticizing the current plans, telling why something wouldn’t work but missing a key piece – not having their own plan.
Sure, you don’t like the BJP, the leadership, the policies and whatever else. What do you plan to do instead? Right now at least, INDIA has no clear answer. Right now, this is what INDIA is all about. One, the BJP’s vote share in 2019 was 37%. Hence, if the rest of us all combine and somehow can manage a good seat allocation, the remaining 63% vote can come to us without getting cannibalized and we can win and come to power. Even though plenty of experts will tell you this is not how it works, let us assume it does and INDIA does the unthinkable and manages to come to power, what then? What will it do differently? How will it ensure that some of the mistakes of the BJP they pointed out will not occur? Will there be any new laws passed? Will there be any new policies or schemes? What will be the changes that the nation can expect to see, and how exactly will they be done? At present there is no real answer. Right now it is more a case of ‘just trust us bro, give us power and we will make everything ok.’ How exactly? If you want more inclusivity, how will you execute and implement that? If you will increase GDP growth or employment or roads lengths even further, how exactly will you do it? If crony capitalism is an issue for you, how are you going to ensure it doesn’t happen in your watch? Also, while we are on the unanswered questions, do tell how will you create accountability for corruption? In such a big coalition where different parties will have different ministers, and if taking action on one minister may mean the entire government may fall, how will a clean government be ensured? Even the most honest ex-PM Manmohan Singh admitted to coalition compulsions in his time. How will you ensure it doesn’t happen should you come to power in 2024?
One is not suggesting that these questions are unanswerable, but they need to be answered. Merely calling yourself INDIA won’t do the job. If renaming was all it took, well, why not rename yourself, GOVERNMENT?
More than anything, any opposition party or alliance trying to come to power, must do more than just criticize the current plan. It must come up with its own, better plan. The BJP/NDA did it in 2014 (Ram Temple, Article 370 to name a few.) INDIA needs to do it now. How does this mohabbat ki dukaan (shop of love) actually work? How is independence of institutions going to be addressed? How will more inclusiveness and equality be ensured? How will things be different from UPA I and II in terms of corruption and accountability? How will we make sure appeasement politics isn’t back?
The only way to answer these questions is to prepare an honest plan to serve the nation, not just come up with opportunistic arithmetic of vote shares and clever wordplay of acronyms.
Make no mistake, a worthy opposition is good for India. Also, an election without competition is no fun. I.N.D.I.A is a good start, but now it is time to come with your P.L.A.N., which stands for Policies, Laws and Agenda for the Nation.