The news
Rahul Gandhi will take office this week as Leader of the Opposition in India’s Parliament, the Lok Sabha, filling a position that has been vacant for the entire Prime Minister’s term Narendra Modiduring ‘s ten-year term of office.
As leader of the opposition, Gandhi will receive several benefits, including a government bungalow and a higher salary, according to The Economic Times.
His role reflects the resurgence of his Congress party, which won more than 10% of the Lok Sabha seats in the country’s recent general elections, returning Modi to power but in a diminished form, forced to rely on the support of allies for a majority.
SIGNALS
Gandhi may have left his ‘unserious’ image behind for good
Gandhi has long been regarded as “unserious, spoiled and unfit for politics,” as The Economist put it in 2023 — a phrase his opponents used ahead of India’s general election last month, The Times of India reported. But Gandhi’s Congress party nearly doubled its seat count in June, a moment that could mark his political “coming of age” as a credible challenger to Modi, The Economic Times wrote. Beyond the privileges that come with being an opposition leader, Gandhi’s words will “carry more weight and impact,” and the BJP will no longer be able to dismiss him so easily, the paper said. But Gandhi’s mettle will also finally be tested as the one who will be held accountable if and when things go wrong, one political commentator told the BBC.
It will not be easy to lead and hold the opposition together
For all his gains, there is still a risk that Gandhi’s new political capital is overestimated, an analyst told the South China Morning Post: The BJP’s vote share remains almost double that of the Congress, so Gandhi still has a fight in hands in states where his party is in direct confrontation with the BJP. While Gandhi deserves credit for holding the opposition alliance together, one member is already urging Congress to dump some of its more left-wing partners, and will have to remain “innovative” to to continue antagonizing BJP, another added.
A leader of the opposition can be a victory for accountability
Opposition parties have consistently accused Modi’s government of abusing central agencies, including by deliberately withholding campaign funds, but in his new role Gandhi can now oversee key government appointments and be privy to the deliberations of various panels, The Times noted of India on. But corruption funds Indian politics in a way that is “systemic”, argued a journalist for the India-based Impact and Policy Research Institute, and members of Gandhi’s coalition are embroiled in their own corruption allegations over the electoral bond scandal, involving several private companies have funneled millions of dollars to parties in what activists called attempts to influence policy, Al Jazeera reported.
