Congress will have to rejig its strategy to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No confidence motion was lost opportunity for grand old party.
K.A.Badarinath
Who killed ‘Mother India? Was it the Narendra Modi government as alleged by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or the grand old party that held the country’s reins for over five decades?
Well the answer is quite obvious and straight. Feigning ignorance on ignominious and corrupt 50-odd years Congress rule post-independence may not help make out a case for the party with diminishing returns.
A party that virtually turned ‘pigmy’ due to its own making and misrule has launched a desperate bid to resurrect itself in conjunction with 13-other splinter political groups run by ‘dynasties’ like the one that Rahul inherits.
It was rather valiant for Rahul Gandhi to make a sweeping charge against Narendra Modi government holding it squarely responsible for turmoil in Manipur or communal flare up in Haryana.
To deduce that Modi government was responsible for killing ‘Mother India’ or ‘Bharat Mata’ was chivalrous for a leader whose party oversaw the partition of India, conceded Aksai Chin to China and its leaders sought referendum on Kashmir like Brexit vote that was held in United Kingdom.
Congress ecosystem seems to get a high by referring to ‘Bharat Mata’ or mother India often used by right wing forces with reference to this millennia old Hindu centric society that absorbed people from all faiths, modes of worship, denominations, religion.
Reference to ‘Bharat Mata’ may be Congress way of staking claim on this very wholesome conceptualization of Hindus that the country and its people have a soul, spirit and distinct way of living.
The claim also reflects the rudderless Congress political formation’s machinations to pursue a soft Hindutva line to negate the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) influence among vast Hindus that believe in cultural nationalism.
Now that Congress has made its move,will majority Hindus buy Rahul Gandhi’s schizophrenia and vote for the party in legislative assembly elections in Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh followed by Lok Sabha polls in 2024? Alienation of majority Hindus due to unabated appeasement of Muslims and Christians is something Rahul Gandhi seems to be working on.
Will this ploy work is something Congress strategists have to think? Weaning away nationalist ideological base and ardent Hindus from right wingers may not happen like heaping charges of corruption and corporate dealing on Modi government did not work.
But, Rahul Gandhi seems to take on NDA, BJP and Narendra Modi on this plank. It may be a grave mistake that Rahul committed even before campaign for the 2024 elections began.
Grand vision of ‘Bharat Mata’, ‘Virat Bharat’ or ‘Akhand Bharat’ of Hindus may be beyond comprehension of Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi who may be looking to poach into BJP-led alliance votes.
A thriving society that’s unique in its way of life and spread virtually across South Asia with cultural ethos as one common thread may not be an easy fact to accept by left-leaning Congress that lost its moorings of pre-independence days and fell into the trap of sectarian politics of divisive variety.
Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra showing up for ‘aarti’ at temples to garner a few votes cannot be Hindu way of life or what Hindus believe this country as a ‘living entity with spirit and soul’.
Otherwise, Congress has till date not offered plausible explanation for its government’s decision to pull back the Indian Army in 1971 war after the forces had Pakistan territory till Lahore. Was it not that Congress then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi hailed as leader of 1971 war with iron fists, who did not pursue India’s West Pakistan agenda finalized in consultation with the Indian armed forces? Does Rahul Gandhi even have an inkling of how this played out?
Did Rahul Gandhi suffer temporary memory lapse on how his own party government forgot Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmir and now his party people have the cheek to seek referendum on Article 370 of Indian Constitution? A part of this Indian Territory was usurped by China in a 1963 deal with Pakistan, but did Congress remember ‘Bharat Mata’ then?
When Aksai Chin was occupied by China and Congress twiddled its thumb in New Delhi, can it now claim that ‘mother India’ was sliced into pieces in Manipur and elsewhere by Modi government? Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was given a free pass in 1950s and 1962 war to takeover Aksai Chin almost the size of Bhutan and was hitherto part of India’s Ladakh and never reflected in Chinese maps.
Giving a staged outrageous twist to Manipur issue by claiming that the state has been divided will not work for Congress given that recent violence was handiwork of a combination of forces including the Church, drug mafia, insurgents from across Myanmar border apart from divisive tukde tukde gangs.
Like corruption and corporate deals charges did not stick to BJP, separating ‘Bharat Mata’ from Hindutva forces may not happen in a jiffy.
Rahul Gandhi has to think rejigging substantive Congress strategy to take on Modi, BJP that emerged as largest political party globally and NDA.
(Author is Director & Chief Executive, Centre for Integrated and Holistic Studies, a non-partisan think based out of New Delhi)
CIHS - Centre for Integrated and Holistic Studies 