Two missing from the house

We heard Narendra Modi during the poll campaign say, he had missed an opposition during his 10-year rule, and “it pains my heart”. The agony would have abated now. Janata-Janardan has granted him an opposition.

- R. PRASANNAN

Though meant figuratively, it was true literally. The Lok Sabha has been missing a leader of the opposition for 10 years. Nothing new. There was no recognised LoP during the Nehru-Shastri years. There were taller titans on the opposition benches those days, but leading lilliputian parties. The CPI, the largest, had 16 MPs against the Congress’s 364 in the first house of 489.

The LoP post came into being after the 1969 Congress split, when the Congress (O) claimed it for Ram Subhag Singh. A 1977 Act of Parliament gave it a statutory status, stipulating that an opposition party ought to command at least a tenth of the house for its leader to claim the post, the privileges and the pay.

The Congress now commands a fifth of the house, and has asked Rahul Gandhi to take up the role. He is yet to say yes. That’s the problem with Rahul. As the nuns sang in The Sound of Music, how do you make him stay, and listen to all they say?