Why the NDA is targeting Chidambaram

The NDA’s decision to boycott home minister P Chidambaram in Parliament is clearly part of its overall strategy to up the ante against an already weakened UPA government. For over a year now, the government has been battered by scam after scam with one of its ministers in jail and a cloud hanging over the head of Chidambaram, one of the pillars of the government.

By announcing that it will not allow Chidambaram to speak till he has tendered his resignation, the NDA, which has scented an opportunity in the changing mood in the country, hopes to discredit the UPA government further and erode its authority and credibility.

Targetting Chidambaram helps the BJP to kill many birds with one stone. It will help keep the searchlight on the 2G scam—and corruption as an issue — which has damaged the UPA more than anything else in the last year. It is expected to  go down well with the RSS, whose functionaries have held Chidambaram responsible for the action against Hindu terror organisations. The suggestion for cornering Chidambaram, some in the BJP say, came from the party unit and the RSS, which was not happy with the home minister for the way he has moved against saffron groups.

In fact, LK Advani wanted the BJP’s focus in Parliament to remain on black money and the publication of the 700-odd foreign bank account holders whose names are with the government today — an issue he flogged during his Jan Chetna Yatra through the country, which seems to have increased his clout in the BJP parliamentary party.

Curiously, the decision to go for Chidambaram was a sudden one, announced on the eve of the Parliament session, and it may well hijack the whole session, going by the way both  houses have been disrupted during the first two days.

The ‘Target Chidambaram’ move would also please Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who has been attacking the home minister. That would be an added bonus for the BJP, which would like to widen the NDA and the AIDMK chief has thrown enough hints recently that she has an open mind about joining the NDA alliance. She sent her emissary M Thambidurai to attend the rally at the Ram Lila grounds a few days ago, following the culmination of LK Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra. Thambidurai sat on the dais with the other NDA leaders.

The ‘Target PC’ ploy also helps the NDA to take the fight against the UPA to a higher pitch. The NDA knows that given the anger and the angst against corruption in high places, anyone who strikes an aggressive posture is likely to find greater resonance in the public eye than someone who speaks the language of reason or moderation.

The BJP would certainly calculate that this may help the party recover some lost ground it, as the main opposition force, had ceded to civil society last year. This has been a cause for concern to the party, and was one of the reasons why the RSS brass allowed Advani to undertake his yatra, despite being initially opposed to it.

Above all, the opposition parties would like to use the winter session to unleash a no-holds barred attack against the UPA, with an eye on the forthcoming assembly elections next year. And the state elections in 2012 have acquired a significance which go beyond the usual state polls. The electoral outcome, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, will determine the political trajectory of both the Congress and the BJP at the national level — and also decide who will be the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s next incumbent. To that extent the winter session is more than just one more routine session.

The ‘Boycott Chidambaram’ may be a clever political move but there is a flip side to it. The NDA has decided  not to wait for the Supreme Court’s decision on Chidambaram, which is expected any day, on Subramaniam Swamy’s plea that the CBI investigate the home minister for his culpability in the 2G scam and for being party to decisions which have sent A Raja to jail.  The party is justifying it on the ground that the Congress had done the same when it had boycotted George Fernandes, after he was reappointed as defence minister by Atal Bihari Vajpayee despite being indicted by a Tehelka expose — as if two wrongs make a right.

The move has intensified the bitterness between the ruling combine and the NDA, when both are called to work together for the effective functioning of Parliament and have to find a way out of impasses. The way things are going, the time may well come when people begin to say that if din and disruptions are to be the norm, and bills are to be passed within minutes, and  discussions are given a go by, why should Parliament be allowed to run for weeks and months? As it is politics and politicians are becoming a dirty word today. They should not miss the woods for the trees.

The writer is a social and political commentator l inbox@dnaindia.net