PM Modi's swipe: Opposition testing own unity

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, August 8

Facing the maiden no-confidence motion in his second term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday exuded confidence of a win not only in the Lok Sabha where discussions on the motion began today, but also in the 2024 General Election, as he held a closed-door meeting with BJP MPs.

28 no-confidence motions so far

• JB Kripalani moved the first no-confidence motion in 1963 over then PM JL Nehru’s failures in the 1962 war with China
• Indira Gandhi faced the maximum no-confidence motions at 15. Modi has now faced two

“The ghamandia Opposition is testing its own unity by way of this motion as their camp is riddled with distrust and contradictions…It is full of parties that have opposed each other for years. They have now united for the sake of power. Let us hit a sixer on the last ball,” the PM said to party MPs, referring to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Meghwal quoted the PM as congratulating the BJP for winning what some opposition leaders were calling a “semi-final” — the debate on the Delhi Services Bill in the Rajya Sabha where the INDIA bloc fell short of its own estimation of numbers and the ruling BJP-led NDA won the vote on the Bill on the control of bureaucracy in Delhi where the opposition AAP rules.

The Prime Minister today also recalled his 2019 prediction that the Opposition would by 2023 bring another no-confidence motion against him and said their alliance shed crocodile tears for the poor and was actually only driven by a “hunger for power”.

“While talking of social justice, they practise politics of corruption, dynasties and appeasement,” the PM said urging all MPs to give a “corruption, dynasty, appeasement Quit India” call tomorrow on the anniversary of Quit India Movement.

The fate of the motion, 28th in the Lok Sabha since 1952, is already known with the government enjoying a comfortable majority.

While the Congress-led Opposition feels it would succeed in cornering the PM on the fragile state of law and order in Manipur with this motion and gain in public perception ahead of five state elections, the BJP feels its rivals have made a mistake by offering a window to the PM in the poll year.

“The PM will have the floor on August 10 when he replies to the debate. The Opposition should be worried,” BJP leaders said today with the party’s main speakers in the Lok Sabha led by Nishikant Dubey, Jharkhand’s Godda MP, hammering contradictions in the Opposition bloc – the JDU flourishing with the BJP support and on anti-RJD narratives in Bihar but now uniting with the same RJD for power; the Congress and the TMC rivalling one another in Bengal and hand in hand in their new alliance; AAP and the Congress fighting in Punjab and Delhi but together in the new bloc; and the Left and the Congress contesting the Kerala electoral space for years and displaying unity as an opposition force.

“Sheikh Abdullah was incarcerated because of the Congress. Who should the NC be opposed to — the Congress or the BJP? asked Dubey taking a cue from the PM who is aiming a third straight win as a sitting PM, a record so far held only by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.