40 years on, Indira Gandhi’s ‘artificial unity’ barb returns to bite Congress

“Artificial unity” among opposition parties is “dangerous for the country”, said Prime Minister and Congress chief Indira Gandhi exactly 40 years ago. Today, the Congress is in a difficult marriage across India, and is struggling to forge agreements with other opposition parties for polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
Indira Gandhi’s remarks came on October 20, 1984, on the eve of Charan Singh launching a new party called the Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Party. He merged the Lok Dal with Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna’s Democratic Socialist Party, and the Rashtriya Congress. Janata Party leaders, like Devi Lal, joined too. The coming together of the opposition leaders to fight the general election against her is what Indira had slammed as “artificial unity”.
The Congress is now trying to forge what Indira had criticised as “artificial unity”. Most opposition parties came together as the INDIA bloc, and now its components are fighting the state polls against the BJP-led NDA.
BJP leaders have called out the “opportunistic” alliance of the Congress.
“As far as the Congress and its so-called alliance partners are concerned, one has noticed a consistent trend not just in Maharashtra and Jharkhand presently, but in the Lok Sabha elections earlier as well. This is not an alliance born organically with any kind of commonality of agenda. It’s an opportunistic political understanding,” Nalin Kohli, BJP national spokesperson, told news agency ANI.
In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena (UBT), led by Uddhav Thackeray, is bargaining hard with the Congress. The Congress, Sharad Pawar’s NCP and the Uddhav Sena are part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Sharad Pawar formed the NCP after breaking away from the Congress. And Uddhav’s Sena is a saffron party. The Congress’s alliance with both of them is closest to what exemplifies Indira’s “artificial unity” remarks.
In the Lok Sabha election, the first since the NCP and the Shiv Sena split, the MVA bagged 29 of the 48 seats. The three are fighting an Assembly poll together for the first time, and seat-sharing has become a major issue testing the unity.
On Saturday, the MVA leaders were engaged in a nine-hour-long meeting, but failed to break the impasse.
Crucial meetings of the All India Congress Committee’s (AICC’s) central and screening committees slated for Sunday had to be cancelled because of the logjam.
The biggest bone of contention between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress are 12 seats in the Vidarbha region. Apart from the dozen, there is a tussle for the Nashik West seat too.
The parties have now approached veteran leader and coalition partner Sharad Pawar to adjudicate the issue.
Functionaries of the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) have said that their parties are prepared for any eventuality if the impasse doesn’t end, hinting at a split in the MVA.
The Congress has been against naming a CM face from the MVA camp, while Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders believe Uddhav Thackeray, who has been a Chief Minister once, is the most suitable candidate. The Congress believes, being the biggest party, it has a right to the CM’s seat, but the equations have changed since it faced a setback in the Haryana Assembly election.
Though there are sounds of dissonance within the BJP-led Mahayuti too, they pale in comparison to what is being seen in the MVA.
The problem for the Congress isn’t restricted to Maharashtra. Even in Jharkhand, it has faced the anger of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Left parties.
On October 19, the Congress and the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) announced a seat-sharing deal. The Congress and JMM would contest 70 of the 81 seats, and 11 were left for the RJD and the Left. It remains unclear how many of the 70 seats each party will contest. The 82-member Jharkhand Assembly comprises 81 elected members and one nominated member.
RJD leader Manoj Jha called the decision “unilateral” and said his party wasn’t consulted.
“…But a unilateral decision was taken yesterday. It was said that seven seats were being given. When we met them again later in the evening, which I do not consider to be very cordial, the seats lowered to 3–4 seats. That’s neither acceptable to our workers nor our voters and not to our leaders,” Rajya Sabha MP Jha told news agency ANI on Sunday.
“So, in our meeting yesterday and today, it was identified that we would help Mahagathbandhan [RJD-led alliance with JMM and Congress] with 60–62 seats. But wherever we are strong, we reject something that is not appropriate,” Jha added.
In the 2019 Assembly election, the RJD contested seven seats but managed to win only one.
To add to the worries of the INDIA bloc, the Communist Party of India said that it has planned to contest 15 seats if seat-sharing talks fail, reported The Times of India.
There are also reports that a deadlock persisted between the Congress and the JMM over some seats, and that Soren was unhappy with the Congress’s central leadership.
The Congress didn’t ally with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and went solo in Haryana. Since it failed to win the poll despite a two-term anti-incumbency against the BJP, its INDIA partners have been talking about its “overconfidence” and “arrogance”.
The Congress has been silently bearing the barbs, knowing that alone it can’t take on the BJP’s juggernaut. It has the realisation that its success in the Lok Sabha election, particularly in UP, has come after support from regional players. In Maharashtra, the Congress can’t make a dent going solo, while in Jharkhand it is at the mercy of the JMM. That is why the Congress has to continue with the marriages, which Indira Gandhi had termed “artificial unity” 40 years ago.