TUESDAY, JULY 09, 2024
After Rahul Gandhi was appointed as the Leader of the Opposition in the 18th Lok Sabha, a video of him shaking hands with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and giving way to Prime Minister Modi has gone viral on social media. The leader of the same party whose candidacy was cancelled, many cases filed against him, whose party’s bank accounts were frozen during the election campaign, etc, had to be recognised as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The post had been lying vacant for the last 10 years as no party had a tenth of the strength of the House, which is required to claim the post. As per some self-proclaimed experts, it requires a party to have at least 10 per cent of the House strength to get approval from the Speaker as Leader of the Opposition. There is no such rule. The Speaker has issued Article 121 regarding recognition of a party or group for the purpose of providing certain facilities in the House. This direction is related to the approval of the party and not the Leader of the Opposition.
Before the BJP in 2014 and 2019, the Congress with 415 members in the Lok Sabha in 1984 denied the Leader of the Opposition to the TDP with 30 MPs. The Congress had won 44 seats in 2014 and 52 seats in 2019. In this election, the party nearly doubled its 2019 tally to 99 seats. In 2014, Mallikarjun Kharge, who is now the President of the Congress and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, was recognised as the Leader of the Congress Party in the Lok Sabha. In 2019, this post went to the then Bahrampur MP Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary. Both the Congress leaders were part of the panel to select candidates for higher posts where the presence of the Leader of the Opposition was required.
Be it the Lok Sabha or the Legislative Assembly or the Rajya Sabha or the Legislative Council, the Leader of the Opposition has a very important place in a democracy. Many stalwarts have made their careers as Opposition leaders. In short, it is mainly the work of the Opposition party to keep the government in check by being the voice of the common people. In that regard, the responsibility of Rahul Gandhi has increased. In fact, this position has once again given him an opportunity to create an image as the leader of the country among the people. How much he utilises this opportunity will be seen during the Parliament session, as the main session is expected to start in the month of July.
The Leader of the Opposition sits in the front row on the left side of the chair and enjoys special privileges such as escorting the Speaker-elect to the rostrum, as indicated during the session. The Leader of the Opposition also has the right to sit in the front row during the President’s address to both Houses of Parliament. The Leader of the Opposition’s main duty is to act as the voice of the Opposition in the House. The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha is also considered a ‘Shadow Prime Minister with a Shadow Cabinet’. If the Government resigns or is defeated in the House, the Opposition has the power to take over the administration. Since the parliamentary system is based on ‘mutual tolerance’, the Leader of the Opposition allows the Prime Minister to govern and in turn the Opposition is allowed. His or her active role in the smooth running of the House is as important as that of the government. The Leader of the Opposition is among the high-powered committees chaired by the Prime Minister that looks after the appointment of the Director of the CBI and the Chief Information Commissioner, the Chairman and the Member of the Human Rights Commission, etc. The leader of the party is the representative of the opposition party. As the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha between 2014 and 2019, Kharge had repeatedly accused the government of trying to keep the Opposition away from the election of the Lokpal.
Now that Rahul Gandhi has been appointed as the Leader of Opposition, he has to present his opinion in an informed and studied manner. Going from 55 to 99 seats is not an easy task. This result should be taken seriously by the already battered Congress. It also conveys the message that people are ready to trust Congress once again, but if Congress, thinking that it is the largest Opposition party, does not take into consideration the coalition parties of the INDIA Bloc while deciding the strategy in Parliament, then surely Rahul Gandhi’s performance as Leader of the Opposition will fade. Hope Rahul Gandhi and his party are aware of this. After considering the promises made by the Congress in its manifesto during the election campaign, Rahul Gandhi will have to fulfill this as the leader of the opposition party by taking into confidence and considering the consent of the alliance partners.
