LUCKNOW — The Samajwadi Party is tied up in contradictions ahead of the special session of Parliament next week.
Though the party is decidedly ranged against the BJP on the convening of the special session, it knows that it cannot make much of a difference either way with just three members.
“The manner in which this session has been convened is against all established democratic norms. The government should have consulted all parties before convening the session. The agenda which has now been made public is also vague,” said SP MP Professor Ram Gopal Yadav.
Another senior SP leader said that the party cannot make its presence felt because it lacks the numbers.
“We would like to draw the nation’s attention to the misuse of bulldozer politics in Uttar Pradesh, victimisation of opposition leaders and encounter policy that is targeting innocent people but we will be facing time constraints. We will nevertheless register our protest at the manner in which the session has been convened and the kind of politics being pursued by the BJP,” another leader said.
The agenda of the special session states that Parliament will discuss the journey of 75 years starting from the Samvidhan Sabha on the first day of the five-day session beginning September 18.
It is here, many feel, that the BJP has put in a catch.
According to a political analyst, the BJP has very shrewdly paved the way for a division in the INDIA bloc.
“When the journey of Parliament is discussed, the BJP will shift the spotlight on the Emergency and parties like the Samajwadi Party will be compelled to speak up against it. Divisions will automatically emerge within the INDIA bloc and that is what the BJP wants. It wants to remind people of the atrocities that took place during the Emergency,” the analyst said.
A SP leader agreed, “I do not know the extent to which the party will speak out against the Emergency but there is no doubt that our leaders have been the biggest sufferers of that period and when the Emergency is discussed, none of the INDIA members are going to appreciate it.”
Incidentally, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party are already speaking in conflicting tones in Uttar Pradesh which does not augur well for the future of the opposition alliance in UP.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Rai has blamed the Samajwadi Party for the Congress defeat in the Bageshwar by-election in Uttarakhand. “The Congress would have won if the SP had not fielded its candidate,” he said.
Rai also announced that the Congress would contest all 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, thereby closing all options for seat sharing.
The Parliament session could reflect this lack of bonhomie between the two opposition parties.
The BJP would also like to deflect attention from the caste census issue — something that it is not too comfortable with — and for this it will bring up issues that can put the opposition, particularly the Congress, in the dock.
“We are a political party and we will definitely put our rivals in a spot — that is what politics is all about. We will tell the people how some parties have looted the country for decades and how Modi has done so much for the people in just nine years,” said a BJP leader, giving a clear indication of the mood of the special session. — IANS
