Time for Government to push new challenges

Time for Government to push new challenges

Encouraged by the lack of Opposition drive and disarray in its ranks in the wake of the spectacular BJP victory in the Lok Sabha polls.

FPJ BureauUpdated: Friday, August 16, 2019, 08:38 PM IST
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Encouraged by the lack of Opposition drive and disarray in its ranks in the wake of the spectacular BJP victory in the Lok Sabha polls, the Narendra Modi government is on an overdrive to push through some legislative measures that it found difficult to pass when there was comparative Opposition unity and better floor co-ordination among opposition parties.

The passing of the Triple Talaq Bill in both Houses of Parliament after its earlier failure to cross the Rajya Sabha hurdle and the smooth sailing that the revocation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir got despite the National Democratic Alliance’s lack of numbers in the Rajya Sabha bore testimony to how the BJP was able to convince some Opposition parties to vote with it. It was as though the Opposition was shell-shocked at the scale of its Lok Sabha victory and the Treasury benches resolved to capitalise on the manifest demoralisation in its ranks. Among the parties that boosted NDA’s numbers were Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress, and K Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi. Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party too sprung a surprise by supporting the government.

Buoyed by the successes, the NDA is now looking at other changes that could change the face of the body politic. Prime Minister Modi has, for many years, made no bones about his preference for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State assemblies and he seems determined now to carry it through. Yet, he is not bulldozing it through but wants consensus to build around it. In his Independence Day address from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Modi made a pitch for simultaneous polls, cajoling the ‘stakeholders’ to debate and discuss so as to bring this about in line with the practice in most countries so that after ‘one nation, one Constitution’ the country moves towards ‘one nation one poll’.

While this is not a new idea but one that has been advocated for nearly two decades by its protagonists and in recent times supported by the Prime Minister, apparently at this point of time Modi feels that the time is propitious for pushing this through before the Opposition re-groups into a strong force again. An year ago, the Law Commission had recommended holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies to cut expenditure and save public money. 

The draft submitted to the Government by the Law Ministry had, however, cautioned that "holding simultaneous elections was not possible within the existing framework of the Constitution". Evidently, the Modi government now feels it can convince the Opposition parties that supported it on Triple Talaq and revocation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir to help it get over this hurdle too.

At the same time, there is new impetus being given to creating a unified command structure for the three wings of the armed forces with a new post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) which is directed towards improving co-ordinated decision-making and inter-operability in the armed forces. This has been on the table for two decades but successive governments have procrastinated on it with a basic sense of insecurity in the bureaucracy that the forces would become too powerful.

A strong leader as Modi is, he does not suffer from that insecurity and would rather have a clear structure which helps decision-making in the forces. How this would pan out may be a question mark but it is true that in most countries such a structure is in place. But all said and done, the Prime Minister cannot lose sight of the fact that while these measures have their own importance, with the economy on a slowdown trajectory, his government has to focus attention more than ever on a revival of high growth and extensive job creation.

The government has little option than to focus on building a consumption-driven economy. Indeed, to boost economic development, it is necessary to fund industrial growth. Skill development has to be a priority. While many countries are slipping into recession, India can still ward off such a possibility but for this government policies will need to grapple with new challenges and devise innovative new methods.

- S Sadanand

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