Govt outreach, under cover

Radhika Ramaseshan, TT, New Delhi, Nov. 23: Senior Union ministers have begun "informal" consultations with Opposition leaders to seek "common ground" to find a solution to the demonetisation stand-off.

But an unusual request by minister Ananth Kumar to some of the Opposition leaders not to share information about a proposed meeting tomorrow appears to have touched a raw nerve and fuelled suspicion of a "divide-and-rule" tactic.

The government decided to reach out across the aisle after the Opposition mounted a show of strength in the Parliament complex this morning and called for countrywide protests on November 28.

Murmurs within the BJP about adverse feedback from farmers and traders also appear to have prompted the government to explore the possibility of de-escalating the confrontation over demonetisation.

Responding to a persistent demand from the Opposition that the Prime Minister should reply to the debate on demonetisation, the government said Narendra Modi might attend the session tomorrow but left it open-ended whether he would speak in the House.

As the first "overture" to the Opposition, home minister Rajnath Singh has convened a meeting of floor leaders of both Houses at 10am tomorrow. Kumar called the leaders on Rajnath's behalf.

Kumar also requested the Opposition invitees not to share information on the meeting with other leaders.

Left and Trinamul sources confirmed getting calls from Kumar. But they signalled they were in no mood to attend the meeting.

A Trinamul source said: "The government can go take a walk for all we care. My party has called a meeting of the combined Opposition also at 10am tomorrow in the Parliament complex. This is a tactic to divide the Opposition."

The Congress has called a meeting of all Opposition parties tomorrow morning in Parliament to take a collective call on how to respond to the government's outreach.

Anand Sharma, the Congress's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, said: "We need to consult every party that has been part of the process in Parliament. This kind of divide-and-rule is not on."

Among the Left, the CPM was invited but not the CPI. Sources in the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party claimed they would not go to Rajnath's meeting.

"The battle lines against the BJP cannot be blunted at this stage on an issue like demonetisation," a Samajwadi source said, keeping the Uttar Pradesh elections in mind.

A BJP leader conceded: "The main player in the Opposition unity project is Mamata Banerjee. We have to speak to her. Without that, no breakthrough is possible."

Mamata, who is in Delhi now, dared Narendra Modi to hold an election over the issue of demonetisation and declared she would go around the country to campaign against the central government's decision, launching an aggressive attack against the Prime Minister.

Back in Calcutta, her government set up a test for the Centre during the day by urging the RBI to ensure the supply of Rs 200 crore in denominations smaller than Rs 2,000 by the end of this month to disburse a promised cash advance to employees.

Lately, Mamata has stepped into the space vacated by Nitish Kumar, the Bihar chief minister who had once positioned himself as the fulcrum of a larger "secular" Opposition coalition with the Congress. Of late, Nitish has repeatedly praised Modi's demonetisation drive.

Sources said the Centre still believed that it could "wear down" the Opposition "with time" as the "queues outside the banks get shorter and money flows in".

However, a section of BJP leaders conceded that "disquiet" was creeping in. "Today I can't tell where this move will take us. It could send our prospects zooming skywards or it can drag us badly down," an MP from Maharashtra said, adding that "our core voters are disturbed".

By "core voters", he meant small traders and small and medium business entrepreneurs who were sold on the growth story.

The BJP has also taken cognisance of the concerns of farmers.

Union minister Venkaiah Naidu addressed a " kisan mahapanchayat" and assured the farmers that money drawn from the demonetisation drive would be "largely" pumped into agriculture to boost crop insurance and irrigation schemes.

A source close to Naidu said that despite the assurances, farmers complained of a shortage of cash to harvest their crops, buy fertilisers and meet wedding expenses.

Government sources said they feared that if the Opposition kept up the momentum, Modi's fundamental message - that the demonetisation drive was a pro-poor, anti-rich antidote to corruption - could get diluted.