The drama and farce of ‘no-confidence

The ‘speech’ marathon that the nation witnessed in the Lok Sabha on July 20 due to the no-confidence motion tabled by the opposition parties against the Narendra Modi government was nothing a political drama that bordered on a farce. Even the opposition parties knew very well that the motion was destined to be defeated in the floor test, so the purpose of pushing such a motion beats common sense and understanding. If the purpose was to expose the failure of the Modi government in delivering its promises during the last four years, then the opposition parties need not have gone to such length as the verdict will be out there at the hustings in May 2019.

The people of India do not need such dramatized versions of performance evaluation by the opposition parties or by the government.  They live and experience the performance or non-performance of the government on a daily basis, so they will deliver their verdict as per their own parameters of performance assessment and according to their own political judgement. If a majority feels that the Modi government has failed to deliver on its promises, they would kick the government out the door in 2019, but if the majority feels that the Modi government has made a positive impact on their lives, they would once again show the opposition parties their rightful place in the parliament—on the opposition benches.

However, if the purpose of the no-confidence motion was to project Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate by the Congress party, as claimed by the ruling party and its supporters, then the exercise has hardly served the purpose. Mass leaders emerge spontaneously and cannot be built up by stage-managed events. If Rahul has it in him, he will make it to the top on his own; but if he is not cut out for the job, no amount of propping up will work for him.

The obduracy of the opposition parties in carrying out this futile exercise has cost the nation an entire day’s proceedings of the parliament, which could have been utilised for more fruitful purposes.