Next Vice-President of India: Why opposition chose Gopalkrishna Gandhi

A Congress-led joint grouping of eighteen opposition parties declared Gopalkrishna Gandhi as its candidate for the post of Vice-President of India.

The name and the timing of declaration of the candidate for the post of Vice-President of India by a joint opposition have brought into focus not only the credentials of the choice but also the importance of the election itself.

With the names of candidates, for the President's election, from the governments and the opposition's side having been made clear more than a fortnight ago, the name of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi was announced by a united front of eighteen opposition parties, led by the Congress, as its nominee for the post of Vice-President.

Gandhi, whose name was also in the reckoning as the choice of the same group until they chose to go with Meira Kumar to take on the BJP-led NDA's Ram Nath Kovind to take over from President Pranab Mukherjee, has accepted the backing given to him.

By declaring Gandhi's name, the opposition has also tried to make sure that it avoided repeating the mistakes that were committed in the case of picking a nominee to replace Mukherjee as the resident of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

In showing such initiative, not only has the process of learning from past mistakes come to the fore but also the importance of the post currently held by Hamid Ansari for a second tenure in a row, especially given the current political reality.

The Chair does matter

The importance, which also usually exists during the tenure of other governments as well, has assumed even more value during the reign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government since 2014.

This is so, as for nearly three decades, the Lok Sabha was made up of a coalition government and this had created a dynamic in the lower house of Parliament which provided enough checks and balances, sometimes more than required, on the ruling dispensation.

Such a trend was broken with the Modi-led BJP romping home in the general elections and the party earning a majority on its own, in addition to which the seats won by the other allies in NDA, made those in opposition mere spectators.

This has moved the initiative of performing the duty of playing the watchdog and trying to hold the government responsible, to the constituents of Rajya Sabha, as the ruling alliance still does not have the numbers to be in a majority in the upper house of Parliament.

Herein lies the importance of who becomes the next Vice-President of the country, with the incumbent also being the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, who presides over the sessions of the house.

Though by convention the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha are to perform their duties in a neutral manner, where which party they belong to should not influence their performance, the reality is that though usually the holders of such posts largely remain true to such a requirement of them, when push comes to shove they hold great power in deciding the workings of the house they preside over and in how they wish to control it.

And this is what will make both, the party in power as well as the opposition, trying their best to get their man or woman, into the hot seat in the Rajya Sabha. As the BJP would try to get an individual who would help it ease its way through a house where the opposition still has considerable strength and presence, at least till the representatives from the states that it has won since coming to power in 2014 become members of the house and give it control over it.

While the opposition will try hard to get its candidate, who even though cannot show it much favor, can at least give it a fair chance to raise its voice and concerns in the Rajya Sabha, given the minuscule numbers it has in the Lok Sabha as well as being left in power in a few states, given that the BJP is now running the government in 17 states, 13 on its own and 4 in coalition.

Why Gandhi is a good choice

This highlights the importance of not only whom it has chosen but also the way it has done so. The choice of Gandhi much in advance than the NDA is unlike the delay shown in the case of the election of President, which had gotten the Congress-led opposition plenty of criticism, in addition to that for who they had chosen.

The fact that Gandhi's credentials allowed him to be a unanimous choice which led to a quick decision, has secured that none of the two major issues that the choice of Kumar had raised, will be repeated. Firstly there will not be any loud allegations of the opposition being reactionary in nature and lacking initiative, which also showed the lack of unity among them. As a number of opposition leaders decided to back the nomination of Kovind, before Kumar's candidature was even announced.

This had also brought into focus similar and other criticism from most political observers and other leaders among the opposition itself such as Nitish Kumar. And Nobel laureate and renowned public intellectual like Amartya Sen even blamed them for taking a tactical step instead of a strategic one even though the BJP has regularly proven to be better tactically than the opposition at every step of the way. Sen even mentioned that Gandhi would have been a much better and inspiring pick as the opposition's nominee for the President's post. Similar concerns though would not be raised this time around.

Secondly, in choosing Gandhi, who not only is the grandson of the Mahatma but also another major leader of the partition era, C Rajagopalachari, they have picked someone who ticks most of the boxes that could be considered important in making a pick for an important post.

He comes with prominent credentials with having previously served as the Governor of West Bengal, and also as High Commissioner to the South Africa and Sri Lanka. He was also in the coveted Indian Administrative Services and has also served as a secretary to the President of India.

Even though he was chosen as Governor he is considered an apolitical figure that does not mince words when it comes to airing his concerns no matter which party they are aimed at. Examples of this could be seen by his time as governor or his writings in different publications since, where he has regularly called out political parties irrespective of their political ideologies.

While it could be argued that nominating a senior political leader able to draw support from both sides of the political divide would have had a better chance of winning, Gandhi's nomination will not be easy for the BJP to take on for the very fact that he is not from the realm of politics, is seen as a neutral and highly respected, and could enjoy support from beyond political lines.

The ball is in BJP's court

After seemingly doing everything right when it came to picking its nominee for the post of President, such as keeping the RSS satisfied, outsmarting the opposition, and selecting a clear Modi candidate, the opposition's early move in declaring Gandhi for the Vice-President has again put the ball in BJP's court.

For the party and its allies while the expected win in the President's election would mark a major symbolic success as well as ease in governance at the national and state level, the need to get its pick right to ensure victory is equally if not more important.

That is why the names that have been the round as its potential candidates till now have included those of political heavyweights such as former party president and current cabinet minister Venkaiah Naidu, speaker of Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan among others.

This is where the choice of Gandhi has also complicated matters for the BJP. The fact that naming someone from the political party would be considered odd against an apolitical figure, it could easily divide vote along party lines with many from its side choosing to back him. It would also not be easy to find a person in the same category of being considered apolitical who could aspire the same support from all over the political spectrum.

In addition, this could very well be considered the first time that the BJP under the Modi and party President Amit Shah, will have to react to the opposition rather than leading the way in decision making, a process in which they have excelled so far.

Though whether the opposition is able to get its candidate to actually win the election will only be clear after the votes are counted on August 5, the fact is that for the first time in a long while that the opposition with choosing Gandhi has been able to get something done together at the correct time and in turn give Modi-Shah duo something to think about. Which was the real reason behind this exercise of choosing a joint nominee and trying to figure out a way of working together to take on the BJP in 2019.

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