Existential crisis of the Congress

Pratim Kalita

(The writer can be reached at pratimk37@gmail.com.)

Elections come and go; governments are formed and dissolved. All that remains are the aftereffects of the decisions. The fate of the country is determined by the decisions taken by the ruling government. Based on the decisions taken by the people, they are governed as well as exploited. Every citizen enjoys the democratic right to express their love, anger, or trust. This is an election, an integral part of democracy. During an election, a new leader emerges, and opportunists use emotion as a weapon to begging for votes. Therefore, the citizens must exercise their democratic rights properly.

Time has changed; people do not cast their valuable votes only after listening to the blood-boiling lectures of political leaders. They are cautious enough to justify what is right or wrong. Truly, the new generation is not much attracted to the so-called political philosophy. Instead, they like to welcome something new: the acceleration of development. Therefore, priority should be given to the overall development of the country by all political parties. The dream of making the country shine in front of the world should be dreamt of by all.

In a democracy, the importance of the opposition parties is always inescapable. They should also serve the nation by providing constructive criticism of the work of the government. Failing in this regard is very regretful. Unfortunately, our nation is struggling with such issues. After independence, the Congress was entrusted with the crucial responsibility of determining the fate of the country for more than sixty years by simple Indian citizens. Very sadly, most of the time, the common citizens were kept in the dark and looted the wealth of the country by a special family and other political representatives. Their repeated wrong decisions, shortsighted thinking, wrong foreign policies, dynastic politics, corruption, emergent terrorist organisations, less attention to their talents, etc. upset the general public. Let us keep aside their comparative failures, but their last two terms and some recent activities also compelled the citizens to withdraw their faith in them.

The erosion has been continuing since 2014, but they are still not able to conserve it. They are at a point where they have to re-examine their idealism. They initiated their wrong policies soon after the positive result of the 2004 general election. Ignoring the call of the time, once again the Gandhi family artfully confined the full authority of power among them. A prominent economist, bureaucrat Manmohan Singh, was kept just as a puppet prime minister. The open secret is that he did not have any decision-making power, nor did he have the proper respect that goes with his position. Sadly, the term “accidental prime minister” will remain a stigma for him. In reality, the leaders of Congress do not like to understand the pulses of the common citizens. The outcomes of the dining table discussion can never determine the future of a country. The Congress markedly dissipates the collective leadership and fully depends on the Gandhi family. Projecting confused Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial Candidate was a blunder for the Congress. Literally, he was nothing in front of Narendra Modi.

At the same time, disregarding Mr. Himanta Biswa Sarma’s efficiency, electoral awareness, strategy, or popularity is considered one of the greatest mistakes made by them. In the case of Assam, presenting Gaurav Gogoi in the battle of electoral politics was nothing more than a part of the family-centric politics of the Congress. No doubt, he was able to establish his political career, but its consequences were painful. Undoubtedly, he is an outspoken parliamentarian, but the bitter truth is that he is one of the major causes of the fall of the Congress in Assam. Whether they accept it or not is entirely up to them. On the other hand, it is crystal clear that discipline and the spirit of service are totally lacking in Congress. The continuation of resignations from party membership indicates the same.

Without a concrete issue against the BJP’s nationalism or welfarism, it will never help the Congress regain its power. They must learn from their past campaigns. Learning readiness should be there, but it has not been glimpsed in the slightest among them. Whenever they tried to attack Mr. Narendra Modi personally, it just boomeranged them. The terms ‘Chaiwala’ and ‘Chawkidar Chor Hai’ did not work at all. Instead, Modi and his supporters retaliated against them very skillfully. This year also, Modi has been offered the pleasurable tagline ‘Modi Ka Parivar’ by their allies. Congress’ vote-banking policy in the name of secularism is failing badly. Their double-standard secularism has been brought to public attention by the BJP. The minorities, trapped as their vote bank, start realising that banning the practice of triple talaq or polygamy does not harm secularism at all; providing equal rights to women actually beautifies society. Upgrading the madrasas with the aim of providing formal education to the youth does not threaten their secular status. No communal disturbance has been witnessed during the last ten years. On the other hand, keeping silent on Udayanidhi Stalin’s controversial statement against the Sanatana Dharma or rejecting the functions of the Ram Mandir have clearly proven their double standard secularism.

People are on the move with development. No one likes to waste time worthlessly. The working culture has been geared up in the country. Now, the youths of Kashmir are not involved in pelting stones. They have adopted the system of administration and joined hands in the race for development. North-eastern states have witnessed the sweetness of good governance. Unlike the stepmotherly treatment of the past, now preferences have been given to this region. More than this, the BJP’s policies, infrastructure development, better communication, industrial development, schemes, digitalization, etc. are considered boons for the citizens of the country. The BJP’s strong leadership, discipline, spirit of work, determination, ideology, and campaigning strategy are the strong points needed to fulfil their goal of reaching 400  or more. They have not only politically reached out to the voters but also ideologically established a strong relationship with them.

In order to combat all these strong points, the Congress needs to discover a strong leader, irrespective of family-oriented politics, who could establish discipline among the party workers. They should exercise self-purification, or the policy of apology should be cultivated by them. They should minimise their mistakes and come out of the ideology of double-standard secularism, or else this party will have to struggle for existence in the coming days.