Bank note ban eclipses surgical strike, uniform civil code and triple talaq

NEW DELHI: The unprecedented Opposition unity after the Modi government’s recall of high denomination currencies is not limited to paralysing Parliament and plans to intensify the protest.

There is a well-crafted strategy beyond the Opposition soundbytes to take the political discourse away from post-surgical strike ‘nationalism’, uniform civil code and triple talaq, which the BJP had designed as campaign themes for the assembly polls in UP, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

Opposition parties are trying to use the problems that have plagued the cash recall measure to reach out to affected social sections, including the politically important rural peasantry.

Notwithstanding the public critique of BJP and the government on the surgical strike, UCC and triple talaq, many Opposition leaders had conceded the issues would help BJP to reap electoral benefits.

Opposition leaders had felt that after having been at the receiving end of Opposition criticism over attacks on Dalits and Muslims, the BJP and Modi government had managed to turn the tables on the Opposition by raking up the surgical strike, UCC and triple talaq.

“Modi not only shifted the focus from the Dalit-Muslim issues but effectively dragged us (Opposition) to issues, closer to BJP’s home pitch,” a senior Opposition leader had said.

The currency recall — designed to add to BJP’s advantage by linking it to the ‘fight against black money’ and by giving it a ‘pro-poor’ twist — had initially stunned Opposition camp, with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar even falling in line in haste.

However, glaring implementation problems — not only queues outside banks and ATMs in cities but bigger issues of traders, farmers’ credit, workers’ wages, crisis of cooperatives, problem of family issues like marriages — have given the Opposition an opening to turn the tables on the BJP and the government.

The fact almost 13 Opposition parties, even AIADMK, have come together shows not only the Opposition’s urgency to foil NDA’s policy/discourse aggression but also their calculation that the ‘fiasco’ can be used for the forthcoming round of assembly polls.

Even while digging their heels, the Opposition is monitoring the government’s damage-control measures and possible ‘diversionary tactics’, aimed at neutralising the Opposition advantage.