New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is clearly eyeing the next Lok Sabha election and is confident of putting the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government on the mat on coal blocks allocation and corruption given the mood in the country.
Even as Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram claimed that the government enjoys the confidence of Parliament and the people and there is no reason for it to seek a vote of confidence, the BJP is adamant on using the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report coal blocks allocation to push the government into a corner and derive maximum political mileage out of it.
The CAG report on coal blocks allocation is no longer about the details of the manner in which the mines were allotted. The Prime Minister can talk about letters he received from state governments, the BJP can hit back with its own letters that the party claims suggested the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) sabotaged the entire bid policy. But at the end of the day, the war over coal is an outright political war and the BJP has decided that this war is not going to be fought in Parliament, but it’s going to be fought in the court of the people.
Bolstered by CAG reports on coal blocks allocation and 2G spectrum allocation, the BJP feels that the government is clearly on the backfoot despite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement in Parliament on Monday where he took "full responsibility for the decisions of the Coal Ministry".
The Prime Minister can make all the defences he wants, the BJP’s single point agenda now is to make this a political war outside Parliament.
The principal opposition party did not allow the Prime Minister to speak in either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, forcing him to lay his statement in both the Houses. While both the Houses were adjourned for the day once again, the BJP addressed a press conference later in the day demanding that Manmohan Singh should take the moral responsibility and resign immediately as the CAG report was a direct indictment of his role in coal blocks allocation.
Adopting a tough stand the BJP dismissed the Prime Minister’s statement, indicating that party was gearing up for a mid-term election as it feels that by targeting Manmohan Singh, who is known for his personal integrity, on a daily basis, the party will be able to tarnish not only his image but also force Congress allies to distance themselves from the UPA.
Taking the battle outside Parliament and adopting a high-risk strategy, the BJP senses that the mood in country is just like it was in 1989 when the Bofors corruption scandal led to the crushing defeat of the Congress in the Lok Sabha election. So the party is keen to keep up the pressure on the Congress and the UPA till the next Lok Sabha election by repeatedly targeting its mascot – the Prime Minister.
It is no longer about details in the letters, about charges and counter charges, about whether money was made in coal block allocations, whether the Congress arbitrarily gave away coal blocks, it is now primarily about trying to ensure enough mud sticks on the UPA outside Parliament.
Interestingly the Congress has decided for once to fight fire with fire because the Congress realises that it cannot allow the BJP to go unchallenged and the Prime Minister’s silence can be seen as a proof of guilt, which is why Manmohan Singh made the statement before he goes to Iran for the Non Aligned Movement summit.
The BJP is deliberately trying to be disruptive. In fact, BJP MP and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, went to the extent of saying even if our allies are not with us, we are happy in our majestic isolation on the issue of corruption. The BJP has sensed the mood, which the party feels is in tune with the mood of the nation and mood of the nation is anti-corruption.
Therefore, the party wants to take the high moral ground on corruption. This is a high-risk strategy that the BJP has adopted because it believes that the only way to power really is to abduct the aggressive opposition force. The BJP believes that the party must return to its core strength and must not let off the government and only single out a particular minister.
The party believes that the Prime Minister can be targeted and if the Prime Minister is targeted, the party believes that the edifice of UPA-II government will crumble.
After Diwali, the country will be effectively in an election mode. The BJP is gambling on the fact that the party can sustain the momentum and the one crisis the BJP is having is the fight for the leadership of the party.
States like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, which are BJP strongholds, are also scheduled to elect new Assemblies in the next few months and the BJP is hopeful of riding the anti-corruption sentiment in the country and move ahead of the Congress in the numbers game when the next Lok Sabha elections take place.
There is a group within the BJP which fears that the party if does not act now then after Gujarat election, Narendra Modi will take over the BJP. So, there are some central leaders who believe that this is the time to really strike and if they defer, then Modi will come after a victory in Gujarat and then he will dictate terms.
So partly at least the BJP’s calculations are also motivated by its leadership crisis and so the party is targeting the Prime Minister as it believes that he is vulnerable.
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