There was no official Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha for the last ten years as the opponents did not have adequate strength in the House to claim the position. An official LoP can be appointed only if the number of MPs from the largest opposition party is at least ten per cent of the total membership of the House. GV Mavalankar, the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, formulated this rule. Although many have pointed out the fact that the 1977 Salary and Allowances of Leader of Opposition Act does not mention criteria of a minimum number of members and thus provides for the appointment of the Leader of the largest opposition party to the position of LoP, all the Lok Sabha Speakers have generally followed Mavlankar’s rule. The Supreme Court, in 2014, refused a petition to quash Mavalankar’s rule on the ground that the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is not amenable to judicial review. During Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister and when Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi won a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections, there was no official LoP. The era of coalition governments began in the 1990s, and since 1989, the LoP was consistently appointed till 2014.
In the recently concluded election, Congress won 99 seats, paving the way for the appointment of the official LoP. It was a foregone conclusion that no one but Rahul Gandhi would assume this position. Sonia Gandhi, this time, decided to enter Parliament through the Rajya Sabha route instead of the Lok Sabha and got elected. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is a member of the Rajya Sabha, and this time, he did not contest the Lok Sabha elections. Although Congress has announced Priyanka Gandhi as a candidate for the by-election from Wayanad, there is still time for that election. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Leader of the Congress in the previous Lok Sabha, contested the Lok Sabha elections but had to accept defeat from Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Yusuf Pathan. With this background, there was no possibility of anyone other than Rahul Gandhi becoming the LoP. He tried to create suspense by saying we will think about it. However, finally, it was Rahul who assumed the LoP post, as expected.
There is a huge difference between being just a Leader of any Opposition party and being the official LoP in the Lok Sabha. Although the LoP enjoys the status of a cabinet minister, the aura attached to that post is that of the Prime Minister. In Britain’s ‘Westminster’ format, the person occupying this position is considered ‘Prime Minister in Waiting’. Keir Starmer, the opposition leader in the outgoing House of Commons, is now Prime Minister. This is the testimony to the position of LoP means. However, with the aura comes the responsibility. It is not unreasonable to expect the person occupying that position to maintain their dignity.
It cannot be denied that Rahul Gandhi gave an impassioned speech while speaking on the motion of thanks to the President’s address. However, zeal must be accompanied by study, passion by precision and aggression by objectivity. Nothing objectionable in Rahul Gandhi questioning the ruling party as the LoP. Having a strong opposition party is a hallmark of a healthy democracy. However, the nature of those questions should not be mere allegations without evidence. This is because the fallacy of such accusations is immediately exposed, and the first casualty is credibility. Rahul Gandhi, while trying to accuse the ‘Agniveer’ scheme, used a video of Charanjit Singh to say “no compensation was paid to the soldier”. After Gandhi’s statement, the Indian Army posted on social media. It rejected the claims that compensation hadn’t been paid to the next of kin of Agniveer Ajay Kumar, saying a sum of Rs 98.39 lakh had been paid. The total amount would be approximately Rs 1.65 crore.
Misinformation is short-lived, and the bubble soon bursts. But, making baseless allegations on the House floor reduces the seriousness of the debate and the credibility of the position.
Many who have previously held this position have made their mark, and their speeches have enhanced their dignity. In the face of such a bright tradition, if Rahul makes baseless accusations in the name of zeal and spontaneity, the prestige of the post will be jeopardised. That is why it is necessary to look back at some instances that underline the responsibility and prestige the position of LoP carries.
In 1969, there was a split in the Congress, and Ram Subhag Singh decided to go with the Congress. As such, with the Congress Government headed by Indira Gandhi in power, Singh became the first ever LoP. Of course, he cannot be called a LoP in the true sense. Janata Party came to power in 1977, i.e. post-Emergency elections. As both Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi were defeated in the election, Y.B. Chavan assumed the position of LoP. 1978 saw another split in the Congress into two separate factions: one led by Indira Gandhi and the other by Devaraj Urs. Chavan subsequently joined hands with Urs. While Morarji Desai was Prime Minister, Chavan was replaced by Indira Gandhi for some time, with C.M. Stephen as the LoP. Later, Chavan was again entrusted with the LoP post to unite the two factions of Congress. However, the Janata Party experiment was so short-lived that there was little scope left for LoP to make a mark. Tenures of Jagjivan Ram, Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao, and Sharad Pawar as LoPs were short-lived, just not enough to evaluate their performance.
In the last seven decades, four personalities have served as LoP for a notable period: Sonia Gandhi (1999-2004), the only one from Congress. The remaining three, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K Advani and Sushma Swaraj, were from the BJP. Cumulatively, the latter three held this position for about 16 years. They are the ones who have contributed the most to defining the significance that the LoP position carries. They have created a tradition that cannot be ignored. On the contrary, the high standards they have set while performing their duties as LoPs need to be considered a benchmark by the subsequent LoPs, including the incumbent one.
An opposition leader’s speech is effective only if it is scholarly, to the point, meaningful and yet holds a mirror to the ruling party. In this regard, if we look at the speech delivered by L.K. Advani during the motion of thanks to the President’s address in 2009, it can shed light on what Gandhi should have done in his first speech as the Leader of the Opposition. Advani began his speech by expressing satisfaction with the unanimous election of the Speaker. As it was the first session of the 15th Lok Sabha, Advani congratulated Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and acknowledged that they had won the people’s confidence. Further, he said that though his party and NDA were disappointed by the outcome of the 2009, they have accepted the people’s verdict with humility. He continued to opine that irrespective of who won and who lost, the irrefutable fact is that the greatest victor is India’s Democracy. Advani then assured that NDA would extend full and constructive support to the Government whenever they found that it was protecting the nation’s interests and advancing the people’s interests. This introduction made it clear that the LoP’s approach is not just to take a position of opposition on every issue. It shows that the LoP tends to make a consensus. Advani then discussed the points mentioned in the President’s address and protested where necessary. Advani went deep into citing the passages of the President’s addresses he disagrees with. It was assured that if the Government brings the Women’s Reservation Bill, we will support it.
There were some suggestions on the issue of development. In the same speech, Advani said, ‘The din and drama of elections is over. Let us put behind us the wrath of the election campaign. Let us begin a new chapter in government-opposition relations in the 15th Lok Sabha. This appeal must be considered a highlight of his speech as this gives a sense of whether the losing side has magnanimously accepted the verdict. Speaking on the completion of 60 years of the Parliament, Advani, as LoP, gave a good analysis of why democracy survived in India and could not take root in many other nations. ‘The beauty of Indian democracy is not just tolerance, but respect for opposing ideologies,’ he had said. This speech is a striking example of how the LoP can raise the standard of debate in the House.
After Advani stepped down as LoP in the 15th Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj was the LoP, while Sonia Gandhi was on the ruling benches. These women leaders were strong and influential in their respective parties and Indian politics as a whole. Sushma Swaraj left an indelible mark as LoP, becoming a symbol of an aggressive yet dignified opponent. She was involved in memorable verbal duels with the then PM Manmohan Singh, as both leaders drew upon verses and wit to take on each other. During a discussion in the 15th Lok Sabha, Manmohan Singh, looking at Swaraj, recited Mirza Ghalib’s famous couplet “Hum ko un se vafa ki hai ummid, jo nahin jante vafa kya hai”. Swaraj responded, saying that if a couplet is not countered with another one, the debt remains. And then she cited Bashir Badr’s verse “Kuch toh majboorian rather hongi, yun hi koi bewafa nahi hota”. Both leaders were involved in more poetic encounters in the Lok Sabha, enlivening debates in the House more than once. It did not mean that the BJP and Congress did not fight tooth and nail against each other in the elections. On the last day of the final session of the 15th Lok Sabha, Swaraj made a fiery speech, saying: ‘In the House, there are opponents, not enemies. We often express our opinions very strongly, But there is nothing personal about it.’ Swaraj was uncompromising, assertive, yet dignified, and an effective LoP.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the LoP for many years. BJP leader Arun Jaitley (who himself was LoP in Rajya Sabha), while delivering the Vajpayee memorial lecture, said, ‘(After Vajpayee’s demise..).. from my library, I dug out to what I had read earlier, a compilation of all his speeches. And I said I must find out from the great speeches he delivered, which I regard as the greatest. It was not an easy task. And surprisingly, I found out that his best speeches were not what he delivered in Parliament in 98 or 99. They were recently in an era of television so the television picked them up.’ This observation highlights how important the role of the LoP is and how Vajpayee excelled as a leader on the opposition benches and the LoP. There is no need for the opposition leader to be imaged as constantly wielding a weapon of words. Constant aggression is meaningless. Moreover, the opposition also needs to be constructive so that the opposition leader’s assertions carry weight. Vajpayee made innumerable speeches, But his speeches as an opposition leader were introspective.
On the other hand, Sonia Gandhi was the LoP when Vajpayee became the Prime Minister. It is also important to find out if there are similarities between her speech and the speech now given by Rahul Gandhi to assess if there is a general pattern of the Congress while on opposition benches. In 2000, Sonia made her first speech as LoP during the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address. When Sonia Gandhi rose to make her speech, PM Vajpayee quipped: “I welcome Shrimati Sonia Gandhi in her first speech as the leader of the Opposition.” Vajpayee’s speeches used to carry subtle meanings. “We have been in parliamentary politics for a long time, and you are stepping in now,” must be what Vajpayee wanted to convey. Sonia Gandhi attacked the Government from the word go. Referring to secularism in the country, she contended that it was “under repeated assault” by the members of the Sangh Parivar. She attacked the Government’s role in the Indian Airlines aircraft hijack episode. ‘The Government bent its knee in the international arena to shamefully appease the terrorists, ‘ she said. On the whole, Sonia’s speech was more aggressive than conciliatory. Of course, Vajpayee took serious note of all the issues raised by LoP. But what makes Vajpayee’s reply worth revisiting is its relevance even today. He said, ‘whereas the world had praised the Lahore bus diplomacy, the Opposition had found it distasteful’. Just like the opposition was constantly making noise during Modi’s speech recently in the Lok Sabha, the opposition benches heckled their counterparts in the treasury benches while Vajpayee spoke. While replying, Vajpayee said: ‘When you run out of logical arguments, you resort to anger’.
Describing that total scenario, one news agency said- ‘The encounter in Parliament was expected to be a clash of the Titans. But it turned out to be a confrontation between the inexperienced and the experienced — and the latter won hands down. The comment also warns that just getting the position of the LoP party does not mean that the speech will get its seriousness. If you compare Sonia’s speech with Rahul’s speech now, one will find the similarity, and on the contrary, if one compares it with Advani’s speech in 2009, the contrast will be obvious.
However, mentioning another incident will show how the relationship between the ruling party and the opposition should be. Pranab Mukherjee mentioned this incident while delivering the Vajpayee Memorial lecture. When Parliament was attacked by terrorists on December 13, 2001, Sonia Gandhi was not in the House but rang Prime Minister Vajpayee to inquire about his well-being. Referring to this, Vajpayee said Indian democracy was secure when the Leader of the opposition expressed anxiety about the well-being of the Prime Minister during a crisis. Rahul Gandhi should also take note of this too.
The dignity of the Leader of the Opposition must be preserved. Vajpayee, Advani and Swaraj have created such a bright tradition. While stepping into the shoes of these giants, it would be to the advantage of Rahul Gandhi to ponder over their speeches as LoP. LoP is expected to raise the standard of debate in the Lok Sabha. The advice the then PM Vajpayee gave after Sonia Gandhi’s speech mentioned above will still guide Rahul Gandhi today. Vajpayee had said, ‘If we get an opportunity to sit in the Opposition, we will show you how to criticise’. Whether Rahul Gandhi has understood the sarcasm in the comment will be visible in the next session of Parliament.
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