SoundaryaLahari
Why India Needs Congress and Gandhi Family
Lahari Reddy Lahari Reddy
People ask “what’s in a name?”. Well, if there isn’t any dissent then why bother correcting to get one’s pronunciation right? Somewhere it has an identity that is beyond prima facie. Some form of history or pride in the name. An expansive trip around India will reveal that there are many people who understand politics just through nomenclature. Either they understand Gandhi or they understand Modi.
The question of liberalism, conservatism, left, or right is not the first thought. The support is drawn from the ascription of values that these names stand for. Modi with his ideas of a pro-Hindu state and Gandhi – a dynasty in service of the nation. ‘A dynasty in service of the nation’, is what the current government wants to free India from. If the only irony had a bigger role to play.
The massive defeat in 2019 for a recurrent time was a big blow to the Congress. Not only were they termed as “finished” but also rudimentary in the political scenario. Upon close introspection, the main reason for the defeat is not that everyone pegged on Modi and his “mandir” juggernaut but because the opposition looked weak. Luckily or so, the Pulwama attacks have stirred a national sentiment which was further escalated with the Balakot airstrikes. By this time people pretty much chose to overlook all the economic and religious catastrophes by the BJP in their previous tenure and run their bets on Modi’s BJP. Congress lagged behind with running their campaign for the basic income scheme NYAY which did not pan out as robustly as BJP did with their truckloads of investments in campaigning.
In the current public address for assembly elections, the BJP seems to have major problems with the Gandhi family. Modi points in his speeches that siding with the Congress means being controlled by a family. Prime Minister should be cracking that joke upon his party’s reflection as it is the bigger siren of scions. Hope he hasn’t forgotten that every fifth elected member in the Lok Sabha is a dynast where UP led the force with 17 dynasts in 2019 for the BJP alone. 40% of longest-serving dynasts have received seats from the same constituencies where their families have helmed from for ballots. From Yogi Adityanath, Devendra Fadnavis, Vasundhara Raje, Pema Khandu, Maneka Gandhi to Varun Gandhi all are part of BJP’s dynasty profile. If dynasty is really that big a concern for the BJP, then why give a roof to a dynast traitor like Jyotirao Scindia when he chose to walk out of Congress?
The family that already has its intent with the nation in place and does not require reinstating it. The family has sacrificed the lives of its primary members who were also the leaders of the nation. Looking at the profile of prime ministers out of the family and their qualifications, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the intention is a good one. Dynasts like Scindia have no populist contributions to make but only personal gains are the ones that must be targeted. In a slipping hold of political power, the Congress too is witnessing changes, especially ever since Rahul Gandhi has chosen to resign from the president’s post. What BJP represented it as a party “in shackles” in a skewed fashion. The Gandhi family has served the nation. They have seized to exist for the people. When India was an infant during the nascent independence stage, the Gandhi family with Congress parented the nation. Not every parent is perfect and so is not the Congress.
Pre-independence Congress was a movement with one agenda of freedom which took the form of a party post-independence as a country needs its feudal structures to function, especially a one that had most of its population illiterate with many ill practices to eradicate.
From then till now, the family has been a torchbearer for an India that cultivates. Unlike Modi’s utopian perfection of the BJP, Rahul Gandhi considers room for the scope of improvement and wishes to reinvent Congress. Of course, changes are met with dissent and hence the Lok Sabha MP chose to step down from his post until he is given the chance to resurrect. But that did not stop him from functioning his duty as a citizen of India and a scion of a family that will remain a watchdog for the betterment of India be it in power or not. Every other day, Rahul Gandhi seeks accountability and explanation from the center either on social media or through interviews on things that people have every right to know. Thanks to his recent “substandard quality equipment” tweet we now have at least some idea that PM CARES fund has been forayed to buy medical equipment at lower costs as revealed by AgVa Healthcare. The center otherwise had seemed to turn a blind eye towards requests of an RTI for the fund.
The recent furrow on the Galwan attacks too points to the fact that his questions come from a historical point of understanding and the political ethos well imbibed from his family. The Congress despite all the flak and challenges needs the Gandhi family if not as post holders then at least as mentors. The BJP otherwise will have a very clean control using its muscle power and coerced implementations on a theological basis. Had the Congress been in power, we wouldn’t have to consider calling Allahabad and not Prayagraj a mistake!
Congress party and their representation is through the Gandhi family. It is not like other dynasties do not exercise power in other political parties or let alone enjoy the privilege. The Gandhis because of their history are subjected to the spotlight and are exposed to blunt criticisms.
In the past tenure and the active one, the BJP has brought out quite a few policies which challenge the doctrines of India as envisioned by our former leaders. And then they quote Nehru against the Gandhis! Putting the ball in Congress’s court with the invention of the NPR does not serve the purpose. The controversial NPR-NRC-CAA is what it is now. The Congress NPR proposal was solely to protect the infiltration of attackers after the fallout of the Kargil War in 1999 and later to combat future possibilities of events like the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The NPR only dealt with residents as it had no business with the Citizen Act in place. Today, the NPR which later will be seconding the CAA and a debatable NRC clearly in their written terms are discriminatory and unsecular. This does not come as a surprise when the elected representative from the minority Muslim community from BJP in Lok Sabha is just one. Even before we go on about it let Modi and Shah first decide whether NRC is in cards or not as they seem to contradict on occasions.
Public discriminatory speeches based on apparels of a community and the grand expenditure on the establishment of a religious institution while migrants walk back home and people struggling with health during a pandemic is what we get now. The government’s handling of the pandemic has been an absolute dismal affair. Be it the migrants’ issue or healthcare provisions. Rahul Gandhi has made appeals to the government to take the disease seriously and impose lockdown much before they actually decided to. He shows the true colors of leadership when he did welcome stimulus package announced by the center for reviving the economy. Rahul Gandhi is the opposition leader who understands the difference between constructive and forced criticisms. India needs Congress to be alive and kicking to save the secular federation of the country if not in power then in opposition. For the sake of harmony and peace which is going for a toss each passing day.
Rahul Gandhi with his constant questioning and critiquing has made the layman also consider the otherwise of what the center decides to do about Covid-19 as well as the India-Sino faceoff. A man who wants to correct his own organization and make it 100% transparent under his leadership is definitely not someone who cannot be the voice of opposition. Even if he is not the leader now, he still continues to fire his shots with facts. Would a Modi refuse his own legislators be given a clean certificate and run political activities? Rahul Gandhi stood up against it in his very own party. Where most of the UPA partners were in favor of such an ordinance to keep bankable politicians with tainted images in the party. Rahul Gandhi saw it as completely anti-democratic. Not to forget his attempts of including deserted party workers which shook the party’s old guards and implemented US-style distribution of party tickets. A voice of dissent that really believes that charity begins at home. The portrayal of which however has always been ill-utilized.
The Modi government is not just pushing its theological and flawed misinterpretation of Hindutva through the Godi media but is proving the phrase “Religion is the opium of the masses” to be true. Not to eliminate the “friendly alliances” with business tycoons that are steadily killing the free market and establishing a monopoly. In no time, we can sense telecommunication is slipping into a single fist. With the Facebook-Jio deal, it might very well be the possible death of a free market in e-commerce. The free market and competition which the Gandhi family believed will keep companies offering better services.
The country is still trying to revive from the shocks of the abrupt GST implementation which has cost the marine industry incredibly along with demonetization. Dissenting voices of students are not termed as “anti-national” or “jihadists”, let alone an avenged attack in varsity like in JNU supported by the Congress. Not to forget baseless arrests of activists like Safoora Zargar for alleged dispersal of communal hatred. Upon confrontation, the party president is met with the “Italian” rhetoric by “respectable journalists” along with their chants of the family being non-Indians to hold any political stature. In the recent wake of events, students will not even learn about secularism, democracy, liberalism as a “one-time measure’. Wonder why only these topics to be left out which form the basis of adult franchise.
Today, Congress needs to be stronger than ever before to keep India deprived of dancing to a single party’s tunes. All oppositions even if they are breaking away from the Congress must unite to question a political entity that might strip India of all that it stands for. Indians today are spewing hate like never before. At least it was not fuelled by the IT cells of BJP-RSS to “soft hate-mongering” online and offline. All of a sudden right is conservative and left is liberal in India. The media has a strong role to play in the same. The media is currently divided into Godi and Lutyens.
The third kind of India’s fourth pillar called “independent” and “liberal” media houses exist as well. The unfortunate portrayal of the only eminent political voice against the government at the center is subjugated to mere opinions. Every other day a Wire or a Print chooses to bash Modi and his politics but don’t forget to mock Rahul Gandhi’s tweets with their intellectualism. In an attempt to pass off as “cool” and true blue “liberals” they treat liberalism as a mere balancing out play. For every “Modi’s Discriminatory Policies” there will always be a “Modi would win the NRC-CAA game” to poise it out. In their quest to attain “left-liberalism” the media houses falter to understand that it is an oxymoron in itself, at present is looking at basing news on Rahul Gandhi’s tweets and less on the disastrous failure of Modi at the pandemic and with the Chinese attacks. Unfortunately, the media houses lack the understanding that by doing so it is only trying to sabotage a dissenting voice which is the only opposition voice this big. Agree to disagree?
In a country like India, where still a majority of the population lives in the dark when it comes to literacy, it needs proper guidance. Not one which asks you to bang utensils but a one which wishes to grow with the nation. Even if the Gandhi family does not hold titular roles within the Congress, they must always have an active role in the politics to keep the government in check on historical facts and to remind them of what India constitutionally stands for. For every NPR like allegation, the party can always fall back on to the family for guidance. Irrespective of whether the party is in power or not. Moreover, the young patrons in Congress today are in the party because they instill faith and trust in Rahul Gandhi’s vision for Congress. The party workers and their association thrive because of the presence of the family as they don’t wish for the cradle of Congress’s politics to manifest the treacherous and dubious interests of the “so-called power-hungry” politicians like Scindia. The Gandhi family is the only thread that unites and keeps a fresh lot of political bearers inside a dynamically scuffled Congress.
Under a regime where one man seems to be in charge of all and calling all the shots without even consulting other fellow opponents, it will only prove to be more fatalistic. A dynasty comprises of a family wherein there may be different opinions and room for discussions and seeking. The one-man army approach in the case of the current government with their supreme leader is fatal for democracy. Without the Gandhi family in active politics in some form, fascism would be in all its might.