A series of Congress leaders quit, old and young over the last couple of years, and one couldn’t help one wondering whether the COVID-19 stress struck people indoors with negative vibes to turn on torrents of fear-driven thoughts leading to panicky decisions to leave. Perhaps it was insecurities that they would not be promoted to higher echelons in the party, so they left.
Media channels such as NDTV which had fantastic untarnished reputations for reporting unbiased news suddenly turned very biased and started furiously reporting even a pin falling in the Congress, yet omitted to report the recent infiltration of hundred Chinese soldiers in India. Such selective journalism was shocking, to say the least.
Right now, while there is an outcry from some ranks that the Gandhis should go, what people may not realize is a new movement is resonating silently in India, a tiny stream trickling in the hungry hot turbulent deserts. This stream may look insignificant and weak but it has the potential of the awakening of the freedom movement breaking all barriers of confined box thinking and traditional pathways.
But, hey, wait a minute, India is already a free democratic nation, what freedom are you talking about, you may ask. We don’t have to look very far to understand the plight India is tumbling into today: Our institutions are shackled and muffled, the Press is like paid parrots, the judiciary is sleeping most times, corruption, communalism, and violence is escalating while Heaven is silent and the rakshasas are dancing in the dark night. Alas, what is happening to India? Recently a 14-year-old Christian boy, Nitish was killed because he and his father and brother had converted to Christianity from Hinduism, and after a series of threats, the village fanatics threw acid on him leaving him with 60% acid burns. He lingered painfully for a few days and tragically died on Saturday night. The police refused to register a case against the killers and the police write that he died of “suicide”! Is this justice and freedom in the land? Everyone is afraid, not knowing when their number would come.
In these perilous times, India today is torn, bleeding and hearts betrayed and the nation needs a valiant leader who in great strides of courage will tread on dangerous waters for the sake of the nation to “rescue” it and such a leader is awakening in Rahul. However, mindless mobs mock Rahul Gandhi calling him Pappu because the mob culture grows from mass hypnotism deprived of higher thinking faculties swallowing everything they see. But right now, Rahul Gandhi is no man’s fool. He is not a politician but rather a revolutionary and presently, he is stirring up a people’s movement and not a political movement, which is why the politicians are dissatisfied with him.
With this vision Rahul Gandhi seeks to empower all Indians equally and without heirachy, and while we say this is the history of India, the moves of the ruling government favor hard capatilizem weakening other sections of society. While the politics of Indian political parties over decades held according to religion, caste, and culture, something is changing. The recent election of a Dalit chief minister in Congress Punjab was a refreshingly surprising step. While Congress was criticized for using the word “Dalit” or politicizing it, it was an important message to the nation that all people were on an equal platform; this was in the face of ultra-Brahmanism ruling the roost silently in the higher politics of the day in India.
Rahul seems to be shaking off the shadows of the RSS in the Congress, whereas in the old days of the Grand Old Party with great figures like Lal Bahadur Shastri, former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had also invited RSS’ primary members to the Republic Day Parade of 1963 for their support during the War. A 3500-strong contingent of swayamsevaks marched in uniform as the part of Republic Day Parade. Of note in 1965, Lal Bahadur Shastri had asked for RSS’ support in managing traffic in the national capital and had also praised the Sangh for their contribution during the Indo-Pak war of 1965. Lala Lajpat Rai and many others were RSS sympathizers.
However, it was clearly evident that after PM Modi took over, there were increasing frightening upheavals coming from RSS ranks with their links to VHP, BD, and others with violent acts such as gau rakshaks lynching Muslims, the caste politics in Uttar Pradesh where Dalits were mercilessly killed, upper class boys raped girls, burned them alive, and strings of girls were brutally murdered. In other parts of India, Christians were beaten, intimidated, threatened and even killed. What was more chilling was that some of these people who lynched, killed were garlanded and some who infused riots were even promoted to Parliament! One suddenly realized with a shock it was no longer the fringe, it was mainline!
And this all must have led Rahul Gandhi to steer up a stronger movement to resist the violence and he is probably the only Congress leader and political face in India who emphatically openly denounces the brutality spurred on through the RSS links. He constantly speaks against hatred, violence and his statements must have sent shivers down the ranks of Congress, leading many of them to cold-shoulder him and reject his leadership because of comments directed to the RSS.
Recently, charismatic former student leader and former Communist leader Kanhaiya Kumar joined the Congress party. At the AICC headquarters in New Delhi during his induction speech he said:
“I am joining the Congress because it’s not just a party, it’s an idea. It’s the country’s oldest and most democratic party, and I am emphasizing ‘democratic’…Not just me, but many think the country can’t survive without Congress,”
He also said, “Congress party is like a big ship. If it’s saved, I believe many people’s aspirations, Mahatma Gandhi’s oneness, Bhagat Singh’s courage, and BR Ambedkar’s idea of equality will be protected, too. This is why I have joined it.”
He expressed that a particular ideology was trying to ruin India’s values, culture, history, and future. He also claimed that “crores of youngsters” feel that the country “can’t be saved without saving the Congress”.
Kanhaiya is a staunch follower of Bhagat Singh, the Indian revolutionary who helped galvanize the freedom movement. Of note, Jawaharlal Nehru and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose also made passionate efforts to save and protect Bhagat Singh who was arrested and hanged by the British at the age of 23. Bhagat Singh preferred Nehru’s rational ideas on socialism over that of Bose and Bhagat Singh wanted the youth of India to follow the rational thinking of Nehru.
This new move of inducting Kanhaiya into the Congress party was bold and revolutionary and met with criticism, but people who want change have to fly higher like eagles taking risks, and not remain huddled on the ground like pigeons, comfortable with the old way of things.
Rahul Gandhi supported the farmers right from the day the three farm bills were placed in Parliament and has been at their rallies and called the movement ‘non-violent satyagraha’
During the COVID-19 crisis, it was the Congress Youth under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi that has reached out tirelessly to struggling citizens and they are there in every crisis under his guidance and leadership.
In States where the Congress party ruled, they waived all the farmers’ loans and kept their electoral promises to them, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.
Of note, he fought for farmers and workers from Bhatta Parsaul to Barmer and Orissa and got the new pro farmers land acquisition Act, 2012 passed by the Government of India. He has done a remarkable outreach during the COVID-19 crisis to his constituency in Kerala, Wayanad. He has also reached out to his former constituency Amethi with aid.
While he resigned as the President of the Congress party, lakhs of party workers are not letting him go. He is their choice. On the voting polls both online and on-ground, as a Congress leader, he has already won. What most people in India do not realize is that the Youth Congress Party was like a dying flame before the 2000s. In 2004, Rahul Gandhi stepped in. He was first elected to Lok Sabha in 2004. He revived the Youth Congress with blazing passion until it became a powerful roaring river. He revamped Youth Congress and NSUI organization. He introduced the election process for the first time in the Youth Congress and NSUI which allowed the entry of the gifted and capable with true credentials, not just the rich and powerful. Under his dynamic leadership, Youth Congress saw a jump of 25 lakh primary members which has increased and expanded over the years. He walked with party workers on dusty roads, sat with them, interacted with them, and won their hearts through his personal outreach.
He is the Napoleon Bonaparte type of leader who walks with his people and does not order them from a throne or a phone, and this is why they love him.
Today, there is a conflict in Congress because of different opinions brewing. Perhaps senior respected politicians do not like the change, and there is resistance which is why they left, but for a party to grow, certain old customs, ideas, traditions have to go, for the river to flow.
The movement that Rahul Gandhi is energizing is peacefully revolutionary, a people’s movement with a vision to empower all people, rich and poor, youth, middle class with aims to fade away all barriers and distinctions that divide the nation and since it is gathering people, the ruling party and inside the party are up in arms against him. This revolutionary nonviolent movement gaining momentum goes beyond politics as it empowers the people and not the politicians, and this is why some politicians may be resisting him.
Rita
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