While Jyotiraditya Scindia got saffronised, helping lotus add one more petal to it, Congress needs to go back to the strategy-making table and rework on its policies. It is high time it learnt that Opposition doesn’t mean opposing Modi for the sake of it, but it is imperative that it has some credible points to oppose him.
Bengaluru: The grand old party of Indian politics is in a shambles.
A few years ago, when Tukde Tukde gang leader Kanhaiyya Kumar and his coterie allegedly shouted anti-India slogans on JNU campus, former AICC chief Rahul Gandhi went to the premises and expressed his solidarity with it.
Surely, many of the Congress members were themselves chagrined at this development, for they were sure such a support would send wrong signals to the entire nation.
Today, as Jyotiraditya Scindia got saffronised and the lotus got one more illustrious petal to it, it is the Congress that has been reduced to being Tuke Tukde.
Scindia bidding goodbye to the Congress is only the latest sign of massive disgruntlement in the young blood. By now, most of us are privy to the fact that even Sachin Pilot, fed up with the Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot is mulling to walk the same steps as Scindia did.
In fact, we already have Himants Biswa from Assam, Ramesh Jarkiholi (and several other MLAs) and even former senior Congress leader SM Krishna from karnataka sever their ties with the Congress and embrace the BJP.
So what ails the Congress? Even a cursory or superficial analysis shows that the ideology that the Congress follows – secularism – is flawed and full of biases.
The party has equated Hinduism with communalism and anything against it as secularism.
That being the case, its own party members who follow Hinduism are enraged and vexed at the treatment being meted out to it.
Another point that can be used to buttress this claim is how the Congress has wilfully resorted to spread lies and misinformation about the CAA.
Though the Act never snatches the citizenship rights of any Indian, the Congress has used the Goebbel’s principle to successfully keep the minorities boiling.
When the BJP released a video lasting a few seconds in which former PM Manmohan Singh urged the then NDA government to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities, it was only the last nail in the Congress’s coffin.
Perhaps, in hindsight, the Congress should not oppose Modi’s government for the sake of opposing it, but it should have some substance in criticising his policies.
In fact, Congress’s own leaders like Kapil Sibal have declared that it is incumbent upon the state governments to implement the CAA as it is a constitutionally valid law.
Adding to it, a few months ago, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh himself confessed that the Congress should condemn any form of communalism – be it from the majority of the minority.
Perhaps, the Congress party will be looked upon as a credible opposition if it resorts to opposing Modi on issues rather than visceral hate for him.
And we are not even talking of Rahul Gandhi’s move to support the Tukde-Tukde gang!
Last Updated Mar 11, 2020, 6:43 PM IST