Opposition needs strategy not surgical strikes.

                                                 Opposition needs strategy not surgical strikes.

Whether it is loud or silent, the bugle for the battle of the ballot 2019 has already sounded. It depends on the quality of one’s auditory faculty to hear or not to hear the sound. Those who hear it feel that it sounds like Shanknaad –the organization which a few young people started four years ago  with the aim of fostering nationalism, patriotism and public awareness among the people of the nation, primarily through the modern medium of communication like the You tube channels,  Facebook pages and Twitter.  For the millions of acolytes of the BJP- in particular of the PM, the sound of the ballot bugle is powerful to clear all sound barriers to expose  ‘the breaking India’ forces that BJP attributes to all the opposition parties. The opposition prefers to remain deaf to the bugle like the cat that thinks it is night because it has closed its eyes.  This does not bode well for the Indian democracy as it is inching forward to the establishment of a single-party state imposing its own ideology and threatening to spread its tentacles everywhere. Unless the opposition wakes up from its Land of Nod, our democracy is in real danger.  The opposition will have to squarely shoulder the blame for allowing a one party, one person rule that has set its eye not only on the 2019 elections but the next one scheduled for 2024 ( assuming without a doubt that the BJP rule under PM Modi will not be aborted mid-way from now and 2024.)

What should the disparate opposition do now? Is there any leader of any party who can match the PM in articulation, in bombast, in his clever ploy to turn every wrong decision on its head and convert it to his advantage, in his show-off strength as a decisive leader and as one who inspires awe and fear, in his ability to showcase the previous government’s efforts like Aadhar, MNREGA as his own… Unlike those days of the weak  UPA government,when a scam a day kept the opposition in glee and held the ruling party at bay, the current NDA government is constantly under the surveillance of the all powerful PMO.  

The opposition is in palpable despair for there is currently no one among them who has the stature to match the PM either in his no holds barred attacks, or in his impressive presence( seen in his sartorial attire, well groomed look with not a strand of his hair out of place-all in keeping  with his passion for Swachch campaigns) or in his stentorian and strident rhetoric. His carping and nagging critical  speeches laced with sarcasm at the expense of  the entire opposition resonate splendidly with the masses and it is difficult to find someone who could combine his suave statesman-like oratory (reserved for his visits abroad) with his impassioned appeals to the prejudices and emotions of the masses. The opposition parties have a Mamta who excels in demagoguery, a Rahul who exudes naivety, a Patnaik who believes in the sound of silence , a Nitish who looks a double-faced Janus,  a Kejriwall who indulges in a querulous mew and a Yechuri, unfortunately labeled  as a JNU anti-national because of his tall intellectualism. The others either are sycophants to the leaders listed above or have abdicated their responsibility and their intelligence to remain in shadow.

So what is the solution to inject a new vitality to the debilitated, almost tottering opposition?

1.      There should not be any short term coalition but a long term co-operative alliance among the different parties.  This means to abandon the cliché  Common Minimum Programme. In its place, bring a Broad- based Maximum Programme which will evoke unquestionable acceptance from all parties despite their ideological differences. It can no longer be a loose federation known as coalition but the coming together of disparate parties for the purpose of collaboration. There is a difference between coalition and collaboration. Collaboration includes information and responsibility sharing, program coordination, and joint planning that stretches for a long time. Coalition on the contrary is short-lived and involves different parties getting together for a specific purpose and disbanding after achieving their immediate goal.

2.       Today almost globally the Rightists have taken the mantle of governance from the leftists and the centrists -both left and right of centre. But the moot question with reference to India  is:  is there any real difference between the different  ideologies(left, right and centre) when it comes to governance of a vast, heterogeneous  nation comprising the lowly poor and the ultra rich,  the traditional and the modern, religious majority and religious minority, the conservatives believing in varied cultural codes of  ‘do’s and ‘don’ts, and the new generation desiring uninhibited freedom of living without a paternalistic decree, and last but not the least  the adherents to middle class (pseudo) morality refusing all that goes by modern strands of morality yet desiring the new apps  brought forth by the giant strides by modern, revolutionary advances in science and technology?  The answer is No, there is no difference among politicians of different groups, for both the rightists and the leftists  speak in the same voice that they work for the poor and their main economic plank is development. But there is a difference.

 The pendulum today has swung in favour of the Rightists because they have resorted to galvanizing the hitherto dormant Hindu pride and Indianness- whatever that stands for. It has resonated well with the majority Hindu population and to add insult to injury, the rightist party dubs all the attempts of the secular forces as “minority appeasement” This  is a double edged cut for the opposition- for their failure to instill pride in being a Hindu and for their hitherto lop sided encouragement of just one minority community(not all minoriities).

3.      So the new opposition strategy must strongly abhor from references to religion and focus on development of Indians as a whole where class, caste, religion find no mention. The present column in any application form asking whether one belongs to SC/ST/OBC community and whether one is a Hindu, Muslim or Christian should be done away with. Any Indian below the poverty line, any Indian who for centuries had suffered discrimination because of caste lineage, any Indian who needs sustenance, education, healthcare, and basic amenities such as housing, food and clothing has to be provided without any caste and religious identity.

This essentially means a new approach to secularism- to return it to its original meaning of no state interference in the beliefs, faiths and religions of the people. There should be a scrupulous avoidance of identifying a person through his caste and religion. In a well thought out article Madhu Kishwar says the Uniform Civil Code need not be brought in. For example in the case of triple talqk, she has argued that if a woman feels aggrieved on being forced to divorce on the basis of triple talaq, she should seek justice from the courts which work within the Constitutional regulations. This is the best way of leaving religious decrees and customs to the practitioners till such time one of the victims of such a biased custom appeals for justice under the Indian Penal code.

4.       There is no need to attack the ruling party by references to the danger it poses to secularism, pluralism, multi- culturalism –terms that have become clichés  and they should  be substituted by Indian-ism that exemplifies all these attributes. This is the new coinage Indianism-  as against Hinduism and majoritarianism - that takes diversity as its core and forges unity around it. Avoid using words like underprivileged and deprived groups. Make a bold statement there is only one Indian who is rightfully and constitutionally privileged to share and participate in the welfare schemes of the government aimed at equitable distribution of the nation’s resources. The new slogan shall be Diversity in Unity

5.       On (Un) Employment:

There should be a scheme on the British lines of The Work Experience programme . This is a voluntary scheme for people between 16 and 24 who have been unemployed for more than three months, but less than nine. They shall be paid subsistence allowance by the government. Companies and manufacturing sectors, small scale industries, housing sectors, shops etc must be told to hire these jobseekers and train them for their specific requirements.  They will not be paid for four to eight weeks by the hiring firms and they must  work 25 to 30 hours each week during which period they  will continue to receive jobseeker's subsistence allowance from the government. However, anyone who cuts his/her placement short after more than one week will have the subsistence benefits stopped for two weeks. On successful completion at the end of the stipulated period of training, they shall be employed by those units and given proper wages/ salaries. This scheme aims at combining training and work placement to unemployed youth.  Anyone completing a placement is given a guaranteed job with the organization where s/he had been trained. This scheme is to bring together the moneyed class and the poor. This is a step forward over the present Skill India programme because (a)  it guarantees jobs for the trained people,(b) the government provides  the  subsidy by way of  subsistence allowance to every unemployed youth for a short period(4-8 weeks) and(c) it compels the employing organizations to provide training (without any expense for them) and  later provide employment.

6.      On Education:  Education has to be made compulsory up to class X. All those who pass class X and decide to take up skilled jobs shall be given subsistence money till such time they are trained to take up jobs. If the student fails to clear class X, s/he will not get that allowance. This shall be the incentive for students not to drop out of schools. Education till class X must be qualitatively on par with global curriculum.

While the basic structure of school education should remain uniform, states should be permitted to introduce new courses as per the state’s requirement. Schools on the coastal area can introduce, fishing that includes manufacturing and repairing of fishing nets, trawlers and mechanized boats, packaging of tinned fish for export purposes, production of fish oil etc.  Those in Karnataka can include courses on silk industry- manufacturing of silk products, rearing of silkworms, in Himachal Pradesh fruit preservation, manufacture of jellys and jams, juices and squashes etc. What is to be reckoned is the youth must get gainful employment within the state and this is possible, if trained in that state’s main source of livelihood.

Recognition of Madarsas and throwing them open to all and not limited to Muslims will go a long way towards integration. While madarsas and convents can include teaching their respective religion, they should adhere to the basic syllabus that is uniformly taught across the nation. Every student will take the Boards in the IXth and the Xth. One important policy should be no separate schools for boys and girls, as common schools will promote healthy respect for the other gender

Higher education must be only for those who opt for studies beyond class X.  Bifurcate XI th and XIIth into professional and academic courses. Those who study academic courses go to colleges and universities and the others go for professional studies. University and professional institutions must focus on liberal studies along with discipline- specific courses. For example a student of science must have a course in Philosophy and Sociology and a student of Humanities/ Commerce must have a ground knowledge of Science and Technology . These are not to be treated as subsidiary courses, but as main courses. Those in professional courses shall have one half of the day for academic studies and the other half for training in industries. Teacher training institutes have to be on the lines of Open Learning while they get practical teaching practice in schools. The target should be to increase school teachers strength qualitatively and quantitatively.

     Environmental studies have to be a part of every syllabus. So also gender studies, sociological issues that we see daily debated on the TV including entry for and pujas by women in all places of religious worship, gay-lesbian marriages, transgender problems, parliamentary democracy, etc. Debates and discussions are central to the development of mind and the students should be allowed full freedom to discuss these issues.

    No reservation except monetary help in the form of scholarships to the needy must be the principle in all the institutions. There shall be no mention of caste and religion in the application form. Those who need financial assistance should apply separately.(This should hold true of jobs ,training programmes also). Let the word reservation be done away with. Those who are financially needy in pursuit of education must be given the necessary help.

7.      On Health: Health schemes have to be introduced in a big way. Mohalla clinics will have to be strengthened. At least a minmum of 2% of the GDP should be for Healthcare towards setting up primary and secondary healthcare units –especially in the rural and tribal areas. All students of medicine will have to work for a minimum of two years in rural/tribal areas as a part of their MBBS syllabus and government should incur the expenditure on their salaries during this period. More hospitals and more schools must be at the core of all development programmes.

8.        On Environment:. Special schemes have to be drawn for the conservation and protection of environment. The AAP government’s incentive to waive off water and power bills when the consumption is less than 400 units per month has made citizens aware of not wasting the two essentials.  

9.      The opposition will have to start a new page on the social media. No twitters please as they encourage abusive language. In place of Quora which seems to be an unofficial propaganda forum for the ruling government-(Quora is question and answer where planted and slanted questions are given answers that are panegyric in nature of the ruling party,) start a new platform for spreading the policies of an alternative kind.

10.  Universities, colleges, media and all educational institutions should be free from the control of the government so that free exchange of ideas can be generated.   University polices, structural changes in syllabus, rules and regulations should be the responsibility of the academic community. The present unseemly tug of war between writings of rightists and leftists should be stopped and both kinds of writings should be available for the curious young minds to come to their own judgement. If one side is blocked as it was done in the past and the other side banished  as it is attempted today, no genuine research will be possible and no fresh insights will be made. Today the intolerant attitude to what is nationalism shows the myopic mind set of the debators. The students must learn to accept another point of view. They must understand my nationalism may be different from your nationalism but that does not make either of us anti-nationals. We both are Indians, we live in India and we want to preserve a secure and safe India for all of us. So why do we accuse one another of being anti nationalistic just because our views differ.

 University is the only forum where such debates can be held and they should be free of violence, abuse and disorderly behaviour. Animal spirits need not be aroused inside a university. The opposition should show the way for restoring the role of mentor and ideator to universities. If this is not done, the possibility of generating new ideas will remain just a unrealizable ideal. The opposition must state its policy to free universities from governmental interference and provide them space to develop in consonance with the requirements of the society. The government should give up being paternalistic and limit itself to providing funds for university projects that will augment a positive impact on the growth and welfare  of society.

11.  The opposition should come out with a blueprint of its foreign policy that has non alignment as its cornerstone. Friends to all, foes to none must be the slogan and the objective should be towards cultivating humanity. Remember Shakespeare’s wise counsel :

“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.”

12.  The opposition has to impress upon the people that it will free the nation from moral policing.  State policing is only with the people’s consent as is done in Britain. This shall be the new approach to Police reforms. If police personnel are restrained by not giving them guns, the people should also be restrained from using guns. Today at the slightest provocation, whether it is road rage or any form of dispute, gunshots are fired. The opposition should state that there will be no easy access to guns and this will be the first step towards restoring law and order.

13.  There are many more issues on which the broad based maximum programme can be chalked out. I do not have too much knowledge about economics to thrash out a new policy that is the least iniquitous for all men and women. The main point for the opposition is to be proactive. There is no need to indulge in verbal attacks. Politeness, courtesy, civil behaviour are mightier than verbal assaults. Let there be restraint and let the dialogue with the people be not turned into sledging the opponent. Let dignity be the guiding principle of the opposition and that will pay dividend. One is pained to see the arrogance of those who appear on the TV channels to blast the opposition  as also the angry remonstration of those blasted in language that is unbecoming of a civilized society. So is the rude  behaviour of the channel anchors who speak as though the y are omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent and are even superior to the Supreme Court judges. There has to be some tempering of tone and language which the opposition should show to the society . I cannot but quote Shakespeare :

“Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.”

14.   The focus should be a skilful blending of tradition and modernity. Tradition consists of core human values of tolerance, amity, respect for fellow beings, acceptance of different cultures and religions, humanism, peace and non violence- what Indian history from the epic days of Rama through Ashoka and Buddha to Gandhi and Nehru hasexemplified. Modernity is an advance on these fundamental principles supported by Science and Technology to bring about all round development and welfare not only to India, but towards the global community of men and women.

15.  Let not the new manifesto talk about who is who in the present government or seek to unearth all their Achilles heels but to present a new pair of heels, spotlessly clean, strong, energetic and capable of carrying the weight of  humanity.

16.  Last but not the least, no one can be a winner on a negative campaign.PM Modi might have succeeded because the then UPA government had too many scams for him to cash on the one catchy slogan-“a corruption free  government”. Anna Hazare had paved the way for the then opposition(BJP) to attack and win.  But now merely attacking the PM and the ruling party, seeking to find a ghost when none is visible, replying word for word the insinuations made by the ruling party against the Congress for its omissions and commissions that had happened as way back as during the dark period of emergency can at best provide entertainment of the dishum-dishum kind, but bereft of an alternate attractive policy, such tactics are trite and  sound hollow and hilarious. The opposition can leave the surgical strikes to the ruling party wherever necessary, but what is a surgical strike without a strategy?

 I may sound naïve as I am not schooled in politics. But I feel time is ripe to erase the “N” from the current TINA factor and present to the people of India the concept of TIA(there is alternative). Can the Opposition work on TIA?  It is in their collective wisdom, lies the preservation of our democracy.