Articles by Vikas Tripathi

A one-party dominant Parliament seldom witnesses effective opposition. A government with an absolute majority attempts to centralise powers in times of crisis leading to marginalisation of the opposition and legislature. A fragmented multiparty opposition blunts the impact of what could otherwise be brought to the parliamentary system in terms of legislation, accountability, oversight and scrutiny. What is the role of the legislature in the times of exigencies like a pandemic vis-à-vis a government? Amidst the impasse over the working of Parliament with abrupt disruptions and absence of reconciliatory avenues, how is the opposition–government relationship defined?

The 2019 elections, held against the backdrop of massive protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, were seen as a litmus test for the Bharatiya Janata Party in terms of retaining its base among the state’s indigenous communities that were bitterly opposed to the bill. The party’s success in neutralising opposition to the controversial bill amongst non-Muslims and diverting attention towards the increase in the percentage of Muslim population, marked a continuation of the trend witnessed in the 2016 assembly elections, when it managed to patch up a “rainbow coalition” with regionalist groups raising the issue of protection of land and identity from “illegal Bangladeshi Muslim migrants.”