When the final results of the general election were tallied up, it was hard not to marvel at the sheer size of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory and the unprecedented defeated delivered to the Indian National Congress. With the BJP emerging not just as the single largest party but also the first since 1984 to cross the halfway mark by itself and the Congress not even having enough seats to automatically be given the Leader of the Opposition post, there were genuine concerns about unbridled majoritarianism. Where would the opposition to the BJP come from?
Since the Congress continues to occupy the muddled middle and has pinned all its hopes on Rajya Sabha numbers, where it has more seats than the BJP, the answer actually turns out to be an unusual combination of players both to the right and the left of the BJP. From labour law reform to the introduction of further foreign direct investment in insurance, it is BJP-affiliated organisations making common cause with pro-labour and Leftist outfits that have caused the most headaches for the new government.
With the Left and Right managing to converge on swadeshi issues, those who fall more in the pro-market camp within the BJP — many of whom were seen as the intellectual leaders of the campaign that brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power — are starting to get disconcerted with government’s actions.
FDI in insurance
This appears to be the new government’s first big legislative battle, as the opposition parties have attempted to use their superior numbers in the Rajya Sabha to stand in the way of an attempt to increase the foreign direct investment cap in insurance from 26% to 49%. The government can resort to a joint sitting of the houses to bulldoze its legislation through the Parliament, but it is the reaction from trade unions and state insurance companies that has got the BJP concerned.
Crucially, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the BJP-affiliated organisation that counts itself as the largest centrally organised trade union in the country, has joined forces with an array of other labour organisations as well as employees of state insurance corporations in threatening to strike if the cap is raised. The communist parties have always been staunch opponents of additional foreign investment. They have now come together with outfits like the BMS to prevent a move that finance minister Arun Jaitley has said is crucial to help reinvigorate economic activity.
Genetically modified crops
Shortly after representatives of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh met with environment minister Prakash Javadekar, he announced that the government was putting field trials of the genetically modified crops on hold. The news prompted loud howls from many who believe GM crops are important for Indian agriculture to take its next step forward. But it was welcomed by both the Sangh Parivar organisations that had met Javadekar as well as by many on the Left who have sought to halt GM crops for years now.
Swadeshi education
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad, the BJP’s Youth Wing, sensed during last year’s Delhi University Student Union elections that opposition to the new Four Year Undergraduate Programme could be a key plank in remaining popular on campus. Incidentally, the FYUP had been opposed by the more left-wing organisations on campus from the very get-go, so the ABVP joined up with them to call for a roll-back of the four-year programme. The agitation quickly became a national issue, and eventually the FYUP was rolled back.
This ABVP-Left combine has now re-emerged in the agitation against the Union Public Service Commission’s Common Scholastic Aptitude Test, which is being fought on grounds that it is biased towards urban students. Yet again, the combined forces have managed to extract a concession from the government — despite opposition from the more reformist sections of the BJP.
Labour law reforms
Trade unions from across the country are meeting this week to try and decide how to approach the issue of labour law reforms, after the Rajasthan government last month passed legislation that made it easier for companies to retrench employees. These unions include both those on the Left, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-backed Centre of Indian Trade Unions as well as the BJP-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. Any decision to strike or launch a nationwide campaign by these groups could have a significant impact on a government that has insisted it is working primarily for the poor.
Foreign relations
The Modi government’s decision to vote against Israel at a United Nations forum shocked many supporters, who believe that India must be stand with Tel Aviv and remain steadfast against Islamic terrorism. It came as a pleasant surprise to those on the Left, however, who have always pushed India to speak up for those who live under Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.
The foreign relations convergence of the Left and Right was given a bigger boost after the Modi government decided to stand in the way of the World Trade Organisation’s Bali Package. Although the two factions here are unlikely to work together in pressuring the government to make decisions, particularly in the neighbourhood, the pressure to keep India relatively insulated from the West is likely to gain purchase from both sides.
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