The Hindu : A show of Opposition unity

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 06, 2004

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National

A show of Opposition unity

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI, FEB. 5. In a gesture to mark the unity among Opposition parties during the 13th Lok Sabha, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today hosted a lunch for leaders of various parties on the concluding day of the current session, the last before the scheduled dissolution of the House.

Barring the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had communicated his inability to attend, the lunch at the Parliament House Annexe was attended by leaders of 13 parties in the Opposition, including the two former Prime Ministers, Chandra Shekhar (Samajwadi Janata Party) and H.D. Deve Gowda (Janata Dal-Secular), T.R. Baalu (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), Raashid Alvi (Bahujan Samaj Party), Laloo Prasad Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Ram Vilas Paswan (Lok Janshakti), Amar Singh (Samajwadi Party) and the Left party leaders, Somnath Chatterjee and Ajay Chakraborty.

Emerging after the hour-long lunch, Ms. Gandhi said the meeting was essentially to thank the leaders of the various Opposition parties with whom the Congress has been working together during the 13th Lok Sabha.

"This is something which will continue during the next election," she said, indicating that the leaders of the Opposition present were basically opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

Although leaders of the BSP and the SP were together at the lunch, the Congress would find it difficult to do business with both considering the intense political rivalry between the two parties in Uttar Pradesh. While the Congress is supporting the SP-led coalition from outside in U.P., it was making efforts to arrive at an understanding with the BSP ahead of the imminent general elections.

Even though the event appeared to have gone by the script, the Congress was candid in acknowledging that there was a "communication gap" on its side, as it could not extend an invitation to Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Shibu Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

The presence of Laloo Prasad Yadav, who was joined by his colleagues Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Prem Chand Gupta, more than made up for the others. He underlined the significance of today's event, stating that all the parties stood united to "defeat the BJP" and claimed that they would come back to replace the ruling NDA.

Mr. Amar Singh said the "atmosphere was good and it showed excellent coordination."

Briefing correspondents later, the Congress chief spokesperson, S. Jaipal Reddy, said the leaders were of the view that the `India Shining' campaign was based on a "false feel-good factor." Apparently, the leaders also cracked jokes over various dimensions of the campaign. It was estimated that the current media campaign would cost approximately Rs. 500 crores.

"Feel good cannot be a slogan. Any slogan has to be based on future hope and promises and not a ridiculous slogan relating to a sense of the present. This factor is not shared by large popular sections even among the top sections," Mr. Reddy said.

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