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| Indian National Congress-A sinking ship | | | Brig Anil Gupta
The grand old party of
Indian politics that ruled the country for almost six decades has reached a stage that in order to remain relevant in national politics, it is now piggy backing on the small regional parties. The present Congress party though calls itself Indian National Congress (INC) is in fact the heir of Congress (Indira), a faction of INC when Indira Gandhi decided to split the party to regain its control in the hands of the Nehru family. Congress under Indira coined an emotive slogan to win the elections, "Garibi Hatao", along with promoting caste and community based politics. This led to deterioration of ethical politics. Drunk with power, Congress leadership began to drift from the cadre. It soon became a leader-based party instead of a cadre-based party. Since, it became a one-family ruled party, organisational elections were never held sounding the death knell of party organisation at grass root level. The dedicated workers of the party gradually became disenchanted with the party and disintegrated. Money and muscle power became the norm for winning elections rather than the hard work and dedication of the cadre.
The party reached its nadir in the recently held assembly elections in the state of Karnatka. It scored many self-goals during the campaign. IT repeatedly termed Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) as the B Team of BJP. Despite, aggressive campaign by its party President and other leaders the party failed to re-win the mandate and form its government. To save itself from humiliation and embarrassment, it formed a coalition government with a regional party which had merely won 40 seats in the assembly (which was referred as BJP's B Team) and conceded the coveted chair of Chief Minister to the same regional party. Having regularly been drubbed badly in many state elections, it tired a concept of "Mahagath Bandhan" during Bihar elections, in which all parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party came together to field a common candidate. This experiment brought together strange bed fellows but yet succeeded. Buoyed by this, the experiment was successfully repeated in by- elections to parliamentary seats in UP and Maharashtra.
The idea of a third front comprising the regional parties was also emerging simultaneously. At this stage the novice President of Congress during the canvasing in Karnatka declared himself as the next Prime Minister after the 2019 parliamentary elections. This sent shivers among the regional party supremoes who were themselves dreaming of the same. Fissures appeared in the Mahagath Bandhan even before it could be stitched together. The Congress President is acceptable as potential Prime Minister to none of the regional party satraps. It has given a severe jolt to the ambition of the ruling family of Congress. Its top leadership is working tirelessly to fulfil the ambition of their Party boss through any means. The mother-son duo is leaving no stone unturned including roping in a foreign based entity Cambridge Analytica for running its 2019 election campaign. In doing so it was also alleged that it has compromised national security.
But the crisis Congress party is facing is that of winning elections. One after the other the party has yielded its political space to BJP due to mismanagement of election campaign. Many analysts feel that the Congress party is faced with a dilemma of lineage versus capability.
The scion of the Gandhi family, who heads the Congress now, is in the habit of making tall announcements about revolutionary reforms in party's functioning but is unable to implement them due to the influence enjoyed in the party by the old-guard leadership. The Cadre thus feels cheated once again by its leadership and gets further distanced from the Party. The nation was shocked and surprised when an e-mailed statement by the spokesperson of internationally banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) praised the anti-Army statement made by its veteran leader and leader of the opposition in Upper House. The statement read, "Lashkar is of same opinion as that of the Congress leader Azad and its other leaders". Earlier, the veteran Congress leader made provocative statement against the Indian Army after imposition of Governor's Rule in J&K, he said, "Indian Army is killing more civilians than terrorists. They take action against four terrorists and kill 20 civilians." He also went to the extent of blaming the Central Government for planning "massacre of innocents" in Kashmir by imposing Governor's Rule. The statement was welcome in Pakistan and by various terrorist tanzeems including the dreaded global terrorist Hafiz Saeed. The frequencies of INC and LeT seem to be matching.
Earlier also after the death of dreaded local terrorist Burhan Wani, many Congress leaders had condemned the killing stating that he should have been captured alive rather than killing. This also drew praise from the mastermind of Mumbai massacre and global dreaded terrorist Hafiz Saeed when he termed Congress and its leadership as "good elements in India."
Was it co-incidental? Many Congress leaders have been speaking pro-Pak language or supporting Pak propaganda when they openly challenged the veracity of surgical strikes launched by Indian Army on the terrorist launch pads close to the Line of Control (LOC). Just like Pakistan was denying that any strikes have been launched in its territory, Congress leaders were demanding the proof for the same despite the fact that Director General of Military Operations of Indian Army had himself broken the news to the nation in a televised statement.
In an earlier instance, veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyyar was seen on TV screens asking the Pakistanis to help Congress overthrow the newly elected Modi government during a talk show on a Pakistani TV channel.
Nation ignored it that time keeping in mind unpredictable, maverick behaviour of the Congress leader. But the larger picture is emerging now after synthetizing all the events of the past and latest happenings. The dinner diplomacy with Pakistan Ambassador during the Gujarat campaigning is also now falling into place in view of the latest revelations.
Lately, there is convergence between the Congress party and Pakistani media, "Modi Hatao, Desh Bachao." The panelists from Pakistan on our channels and during panel discussions on Pak TV are often heard advocating removal of Modi government. The recent one after the other anti-Army utterances by veteran Congress leaders including Chidamabram which please Pakistan appear to be the effect of this convergence. It appears Congress has made up its mind to make "Kashmir" a big issue for the 2019 elections. Rousing the communal passions may form part of this strategy. The desperation of Congress to win in 2019 even compromising national security is the final attempt in axing its own feet.
What is the association of Hafiz Saeed with Congress? While he spits venom against PM Modi, he appears to have a soft corner for the Congress leadership.
Hafiz Saeed is trying to mainstream terror by putting his candidates in the electoral battle in the ongoing Pakistani general election through a proxy political party known as "Allah O Akbar Tehreek." Among the 200 terrorists he has fielded are his son and son in law as well.
Is Congress in desperation and as a last resort to save its sinking ship trying to cling to the last straw in the form of Pakistan? Is Congress planning to take the services of Hafiz Saeed to win a few seats? A very thought of the same is horrifying. Congress without losing any more time needs to allay these fears. Why is the UPA chairperson behaving like Dhritrashtra? A complete purge in the party leadership may save its ship from sinking. |
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