Rahul Gandhi-Narendra Modi meet leaves Opposition divided

New Delhi: The unity among Opposition parties that had been seen over the past one month crumbled Friday when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took an “unilateral decision” to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to draw attention to the plight of farmers across the country and seek a loan waiver for them. Miffed over Mr Gandhi’s move to meet the Prime Minister, the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, NCP and the Left parties refused to be a part of the Congress-led delegation that later met President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday to apprise him of the hardships faced by the people over demonetisation and the way the government had tried to stifle their voice in Parliament.

The parties which joined the Congress-led delegation to meet the President included the Trinamul Congress, RJD, JD(U) and AIUDF, among others. Besides the SP, BSP and Left parties, the DMK too stayed away from the Congress-led delegation. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr Gandhi led the delegation, that also included Trinamul leader Sudip Bandopadhyay and JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav.

Just ahead of the meeting with the President, Mr Gandhi along with Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad and other senior party leaders met Prime Minister Modi at Parliament House and demanded a loan waiver for farmers. It may be recalled that only on Wednesday Mr Gandhi had accused the Prime Minister of “corruption” and had claimed that he has “evidence” on the “personal corruption” of the PM which if revealed would “burst his bubble”. Friday morning’s meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere, and the Prime Minister reportedly told Mr Gandhi: “We should keep meeting.”

AAP supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal yet again alleged on Friday that Mr Rahul Gandhi “lacks the guts to expose the Prime Minister” and said “this is a fixed match” between the Congress and the BJP. After his meeting with the PM, Mr Gandhi told the media that the Prime Minister had “conceded that there’s an agrarian crisis in the country, but refused to commit on the loan waiver”. Other demands included “reducing electricity. ills by half, increase minimum support prices.” It may be recalled that in a drive in the election-bound states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, the Congress had collected nearly 2.5 crore “Kisan Mang Patras” (forms for loan waivers).

With the Parliament session over and no immediate need for Opposition unity on the floor of the House, it was felt that the Congress, by unilaterally meeting the Prime Minister over the farmers’ issues, had tried to steal the thunder from rival parties, particularly SP and BSP, in election-bound Uttar Pradesh. The Congress move to meet the PM, that was officially announced around 7 pm on Thursday, took the SP and BSP by surprise. Both these parties had also blamed the Centre for “rapidly icnreasing the agrarian crisis.” A UP leader remarked: “We are also concerned about the plight of farmers. Such an unilateral decision should not have been taken by the Congress.” The Congress’ Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, tried to play down the issue, and claimed: “There are no differences, we are all united.”

On Friday morning as the Opposition parties gathered under the statute of Mahatma Gandhi in the Parliament complex, from where the delegation was to leave for Rashtrapati Bhavan, the leaders of the Left parties, SP, BSP, DMK and NCP dropped out in quick succession. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said: “We have decided to go to the people as the President cannot do anything.”