Congress pins hopes on Opposition’s legal coalition

NEW DELHI: The disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as a Lok Sabha Member of Parliament following his conviction by a Surat court on Thursday in a defamation case has pushed the Opposition parties to come together and fight the BJP collectively, hopes the Congress. Fourteen political parties led by the Congress on Friday moved the Supreme Court against the alleged misuse of investigative agencies in arresting Opposition leaders, and sought guidelines on arrest. The matter has been slated to be heard on 5 April.
The political resolution that Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi had moved in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, on 25 February during the Congress plenary, had talked about forming a “legal and constitutional alliance” of like-minded parties and moving the Supreme Court to challenge the alleged misuse of the central agencies.
Singhvi’s idea had not gained enough traction with the Opposition, with non-Congress parties not willing to accept the Congress in the role of the “big-brother”.
However, the Congress now claims that things have changed rapidly in the last few hours.Congress leaders claimed that the petition filed on Friday was an outcome of Singhvi’s Raipur idea. According to them, the coming together of different leaders to challenge the “misuse” of the Central agencies was the first step towards a larger political coalition that would take shape in the coming months.
A senior party functionary told The Sunday Guardian that the development was a good precursor to things that the like-minded parties can do if they come together.”What Singhvi’s idea has done is that it has created a comprehensive legal coalition much before a political one can be created. This would be a good precursor to the political one and would hasten and promote it,” the leader said.
Apart from the Congress, the other political parties who have filed this petition included the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), CPI(M), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party (SP), CPI, and National Conference. Among these, AAP, AITC and SP are involved in a bitter political fight with the Congress in Delhi, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.
“So many BJP leaders are on trial in more serious cases across India, but the haste with which the system has moved against Rahul Gandhi indicates what lies in store for Opposition leaders who too are on trial in different matters. If what has happened to Rahul is done in the case of these Opposition leaders, there will not be many of us who will remain a member of any House,” a senior Congress leader who has been given the job of reaching out to other Opposition leaders, told The Sunday Guardian.