Congress working to split opposition ranks, sow dissent within BJP

With neither the opposition nor the government blinking on the former’s demand for a joint parliamentary commission (JPC) to probe the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the latter is now working on twin-pronged strategy to break the stalemate.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is first working to create a gulf within the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The government was partially successful in the first part when it got BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi to head the parliamentary affairs committee (PAC) investigating the spectrum scam and by getting former telecom minister and BJP members Arun Shourie to publicly oppose the demand for a JPC.

Though Joshi later deferred to his party bosses to say he is not against a JPC, there are no signs that he will water down his hearings at the PAC.

The second thrust is in splitting the unity among the opposition parties on the joint demand for a JPC. For instance, the UPA is seeking to lure Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] president Sharad Yadav, who is the convener of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), to break ranks. Towards that end, when Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar held a meeting with non-NDA opposition leaders, she invited Sharad Yadav, and when she met BJP leaders, she kept Yadav out. But as of yet, Yadav has refused to budge, so much so, that when finance minister Pranab Mukherjee asked Sharad Yadav how fair was it for a small bunch of people to enter the well of the house and disrupt the proceedings continuously, Yadav curtly replied that it was the Congress party that had begun this particular practice in 1978-79.

The government is only confident that the Uttar Pradesh parties - Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) - will not insist on a JPC. The Left, for all its anathema to the BJP, is still insisting on a JPC, seeing in it a chance to embarrass their arch-rival, the Trinamool Congress, a constituent of the UPA government, and its leader Mamata Banerjee.

The Congress even quoted from WikiLeaks to claim that that Sonia Gandhi was pro-Left while telecom minister Kapil Sibal has gone on record to say that the “first-come, first-serve” policy in the sector was started by the NDA government, and only followed by the UPA. But the Left too has not been swayed, so far.

The government is, nevertheless, still hopeful that over the next few weeks, the opposition will split over the demand for a JPC. After all, the UPA has to ensure that the Budget session of Parliament, due in February, is not washed out the way the last session was.