Dear Express reader, The first part of the Budget session has concluded, Parliament will resume from March 8. While the focus has, predictably, been on government, a gradual shift has come to the fore, on the other side of the aisle in the House. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on Wednesday of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha wings of the Congress pulling in different directions — his barb referred to the fact that the debate on the motion of thanks on the President’s address ran smoothly in the Rajya Sabha whereas his reply faced Congress interruptions in the Lok Sabha. The PM’s jibe does not tell the larger story. In the first term of the Narendra Modi government, it had become part of the political common sense that while the government could get its way in Lok Sabha because of its decisive majority, its legislative agenda faced trouble in the Rajya Sabha where it was at a relative disadvantage in the numbers game vis a vis a united Opposition. But that difference in the government-Opposition equation in the two Houses no longer holds. Equations in the Upper House have shifted in the BJP’s favour for at least three reasons. The internal pull and tug of the Congress is only one of them. The BJP has gained numbers in the Upper House — in September 2020, the BJP tally was 87, the Congress 40. By February this year, the BJP tally had risen to 92, while the Congress had dipped to 37. This is because of the electoral victories the BJP has notched up in the states, and for other reasons too. Out of the 12 nominated members, 8 have aligned with the BJP. It has opened its doors to defectors from other parties. For instance, in June 2019, two-thirds of TDP members in Rajya Sabha merged with the BJP. Over time, therefore, the balance of power in the Upper House has tilted towards the BJP together with allies in the NDA and other friendly parties. The Congress’s internal faultline is the second reason — the concentration of dissenters, the so-called members of the G-23, in the Upper House has meant that the Congress in Rajya Sabha often acts differently, less stridently, vis a vis government than the Congress in Lok Sabha where Rahul Gandhi is more able to set the tone. And the third reason is wavering Opposition unity. The BSP, for instance, has often made a point of resisting the idea of coordinated action against the BJP, charting its own course. Ironically, the Opposition has come together on the issue of the farm laws — when the real opposition to the government on the farm issue has pushed it to the sidelines and shifted to the street. So, the PM is right. Now, the Congress in Lok Sabha does seem more visibly oppositional than the Congress in Rajya Sabha. But that is only one part of the larger story of the Rajya Sabha becoming more hospitable to the BJP-NDA. While this is a happy turn for the BJP, it sharpens the challenge for an embattled Opposition which is already pushed to a corner. At a time when spaces for dissent are narrow and shrinking, the Opposition will need to summon all its political machinery and imagination to make itself heard. Let’s see whether or how they rise to that challenge. We’ll be watching them in the House. Till next week, Vandita | 
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