Interview: Respect between Treasury, Oppn must be reciprocal, says Singhvi
The honourable prime minister has to learn to work with allies. I think that is the lesson which the BJP has ignored completely in its last 10 years
New Delhi: Congress leader and jurist Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who will enter the Rajya Sabha unopposed from Telangana on September 3, spoke to Saubhadra Chatterji about his defeat during the polls to the Upper House from Himachal Pradesh earlier this year, on the party’s nuanced stand on lateral entry to government services, the weaker position of the NDA government and on the INDIA bloc’s strengthened presence in Parliament.
You will re-enter the Rajya Sabha from Telangana. What did you learn from your defeat in Himachal Pradesh?
I saw the worst form of human spirit in some of the people I encountered and also some of the noblest spirits. There is also some degree of divine retribution since six of the nine MLAs who voted against me lost and the three who succeeded are out in the cold in the Opposition.
The unfortunate game plan was not so much to target me but to change the government of the state. And I happened to be collateral damage. Telangana is a different context, a different place with different figures.
Do you see a change in the equation between the Treasury and the Opposition benches in 18th Lok Sabha?
The intersection of extreme sense of infallibility with extreme sense of arrogance has diminished. There is now an INDIA bloc much, much stronger than it was prior to the elections, and I believe that irrespective of state..., the letter and spirit of the INDIA bloc must not only be maintained but expanded. The inbuilt checks and balances in the government are far greater. Whether you see it in the scrapping of lateral entry (scheme) or in many other ways – multiple voices in a coalition frequently yield better, more nuanced processes.
You will enter a Rajya Sabha where there is a heightened confrontation between the Opposition and the Chair.
One must always remember that you will get the respect which you give. It is a reciprocal two-way street. Therefore, respect between the Treasury and the Opposition benches, as also respect between the members and the Chair have to operate on reciprocal basis. Unilateral expulsion of 142 members is not the best way to earn respect.
Some of your party colleagues such as Shashi Tharoor have come out in support of lateral entry. The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has argued that former PM Manmohan Singh or former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani came through lateral entry.
This is deliberate misinformation by the ruling party. There is no question of the Congress being per se opposed to that ruling. There are certain expert or super domain knowledge areas which will always require experts. What the Congress opposes is a general policy.
The government tried to bring a large number of people as lateral entry exactly in the same way as the service entries are done.
You represented West Bengal in the last term. How do you interpret the Supreme Court’s directions in relation to the gruesome rape and murder of a doctor at a Kolkata hospital?
I welcome the intervention because it is of a much broader base. The Supreme Court is doing active preventive and curative measures on a much broader scale and they absolutely need to be done.
The incident itself should be unequivocally condemned. Thirdly, complicity by persons is yet to be determined. I think this is the most important mantra: minimal politicisation.
We must look to countries like England, where terrible incidents have been investigated by police or an agency without political interference...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pitched for a “secular code” in his speech on Independence Day.
The honourable prime minister has to learn to work with allies. I think that is the lesson which the BJP has ignored completely in its last 10 years. You will see the changes in the decision making because I don’t think non-consensual, unilateral or dictatorial approaches to any of these issues are going to work. These are declarations of intent. But on the ground, these require a lot of consensus. Action. None of that has happened.
They brought the Waqf amendment bill. Regional parties across the spectrum, including those in the NDA, feel very strongly about it.
So, you need to completely iron out the nuances, otherwise you will have rollbacks. From the farm bills to the lateral entry, there were several rollbacks. And it doesn’t suit the Prime Minister’s image.
So, it’s much better to be consensual earlier rather than rolling back later.
