THE Opposition camp should learn right lessons from its narrative that has failed in recent legislative as well as by-elections. Though some parties in the Opposition camp have won a couple of State elections, the overall performance of the Opposition camp has shown a decline from the levels it demonstrated during the Lok Sabha elections six months ago. The lesson, thus, from the fresh wave of polls is that the Opposition’s narrative has stopped working in its favour. Time has come for its stalwarts to have a rethink of its strategy to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Democratic Alliance juggernaut. Unfortunately, the Opposition leadership has refused to learn right lessons from this continued debacle at the hustings over the past 10-plus years.

 

That is the reason why the Opposition has lost more elections than it won in the past one decade. It surprises political observers no end as to why the Opposition refuses to learn right lessons. There need not be any grief for this continued refusal of the Opposition to learn right lessons. For, if a political party or grouping chooses to mess up its own act, then nobody can save it from a collapse or down-slide. But the actual point of grief is the damage the Opposition’s obstinacy is causing to the nation’s public discourse. It is muddying the process through baseless charges and allegations and senseless statements -- that have earned them only political discredit. Pursuing their obstinate stance, many elements in the Opposition camp are known to have collaborated with many elements outside the country only to malign the country and its legitimately elected Government and its leaders occupying constitutional positions. This has only created bitterness in the discourse and a sense of disgust in common people’s minds. This has reflected in the voting pattern, too, that sent the Opposition packing in most elections in the past ten years. Despite this continuous setback, the Opposition has refused to learn its lessons.

 

This pig-headedness surprises the people since it does not yield any positive results for the Opposition. Until recently, we have been describing the Opposition as I.N.D.I. Alliance. From now on, there appears no need to do so -- since that grouping stands virtually dissolved. This is proved by the manner in which almost every constituent of that grouping appears to be charting its own political and electoral course. When the experiment has failed so authentically and when all the narratives have fallen short of their stated objectives of earning voters’ goodwill and stamp, the Opposition leadership should take this as a time to get back to school and start learning basics of politics once again.

 

The question, however, is: Will it do that? Going by the general experience of the past few years, the answer appears to be rather a ‘No’. This is one attribute that has characterised the Opposition politics in the past many years. The real problem, thus, is that its stalwarts are refusing to acknowledge that the manner and method and tone and tenor of domestic discourse has changed dramatically and drastically from what it used to be say a quarter of a century ago, thanks to the dynamic and innovative leadership of Mr. Narendra Modi and his high-end close associates. The Opposition simply does not know how to counter this new-era politics with old machinations and shenanigans. It simply does not have the wherewithal to device newer narratives to defeat the narrativeless developmental thrust of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s people-orientedness. In other words, the Opposition’s divisive politics does not have a considered response to Mr. Narendra Modi’s unifying appeal that cuts across communities.