Like the pot calling the kettle black, pockets of people in India feel that Congress has lost its relevancy in the nation declaring that Congress didn’t do much for the nation, marginalized them and they declared that Congress was not politically relevant anymore because they are not ruling India anymore.
For whatever hurts they hold, one must realize that parties may fall out of power for a few years, and then return rejuvenated, meaning no party will remain the same, and what Congress did ten years back will not be repeated again. Parties that are mature will always evolve and get stronger with time, even if they are out power, it is a time of learning and strengthening.
While some Indians are now looking around for greener pastures, it could not help reminding me how the grass always seems greener on the other side and that humans are hardly happy, but we cannot ignore the grim reality that politics has gravitated to new levels of lethality never seen before.
When people say “Oh, that’s just politics” or “They are playing politics”, everyone including politicians have forgotten that their duty is not to play, but to do and deliver, and if the ruling party is out of hand, the Opposition and the people need to hold them accountable, but politicians and people suddenly got a hazy view of everything and suddenly it because about buying, bribing and switching or people depend on the Opposition to speak, but they themselves do nothing. The truth is everyone is waiting around waiting for someone else to do something for them.
On the other side, politics in India became a Merry-Go-Round because one of the strangest things about Indian politics is just before elections; politicians merrily switch over from one party to another, almost like switching over houses because their ideologies are like North Pole to South Pole, opposites. This switching over is due to faulty creaky old systems of unleashed freedom, good in some ways as it allows the poorer margins of society to rule, faulty because with greater freedom comes greater responsibility and politicians are misusing it.
Coming back to the point, the Congress party is the glue that holds India together in a very complex system of politics, social ethnicities and religious diversities even when out of power, and the presence of Congress does hold the governments to accountability. One may think that is highly exaggerated but let me explain this: The last seven years of BJP was immersed in very communal violent politics, and the BJP playing the Hindutva card didn’t have a clue about the psychosocial intricacies in India. They rubbed salt into the wounds of minorities and triggered off a lot of insecurities that brought wild imbalances in our mental ecosystem. They roughly drew out policies and rammed them in Parliament without even waiting for the Opposition to speak or considering the feelings of anyone. Chaos escalated, while they underplayed the minorities, and in the midst of it all the equations in India went off balance.
For example, when they started playing anti-Muslim or anti-Christian politics by making laws to suppress Muslims and Christians, Dalits and others, some people didn’t want to go to Muslim-owned shops and the new hatred towards communities divided business and harmony. By the way, humans are so gullible, they swallow whatever the politicians feed them. In all this, trade was lost, Kashmiris did not feel safe to venture out of Kashmir for business, and most people stuck to their own states feeling safe within the confines of their home. I have heard of NRIs who feel frightened to visit India today.
The new turn of brutality exhibited by communalism and attacks on women was watched by the world and statistics in India slipped on most of the global indexes–from democracy and hunger to happiness where The Economist released its annual Democracy Index of the state of democracy in 165 independent states and two territories. India dropped ten places in the ranking and slipped to the 51st place. Human nature reacting in fear didn’t want to visit India or venture on with flourishing trade relations with the nation because India presently seems to be nurturing a culture of violence. Intolerance is on the rise and the Bharatiya Janata Party did not have the maturity to realize to never rake up religion, ethnicity or caste battles because stoking these fires will lead to chaos and anarchy.
The battles between Hindus and Muslims were entrenched in India far before the Congress had resumed full governance in 1947. The Partition of India exploded into the highest levels of savagery, death, arson and displacement. Congress was not birthed into a smooth peaceful India but turbulent, stormy, highly sensitive and volatile like walking on landmines while waiting for a time bomb to explode.
In the complexities and difficulties of the mammoth task before them, Congress, old, wise, patient as an elephant, strong as a tiger somehow managed to steer India to reach a fairly stable plateau. Notwithstanding this, there have been horrific riots during the reign of Congress such as the Sikh Riots, which was a horrific tragedy, which as Dr. Manmohan Singh said could have been avoided, and other riots too; India was birthed in violence, pain, travail, aggression and suppression, and she carries the wounds of partition and the pain of past battles so it is extremely challenging for anyone to erase all of this overnight, and would need more years of intense healing, surgery, hard work, and renewal to bring India to rise to a new level beyond castist, religious wars.
Between 1885 and 1905, the Indian National Congress passed several resolutions in its annual sessions and through the resolutions, the humble urging made by Congress to the British included civil rights, administrative, constitutional and economic policies. A look at the resolution passed on these methods would be given an idea the directions of Congress programs were taking.
a) Civil Rights: The Congress leaders realized the value of freedom of speech and press, the right to organize processions, meetings and similar other rights.
b) Administrative: The Congress leaders urged the British government to remove certain administrative abuses and run public welfare measures. They put emphasis on the appointment of Indians in the government services. Specific proposals are made to open agricultural banks for the relief of peasantry. The Congress leaders also raised the voice of protest against the discriminatory laws enacted by the government.
c) Constitutional: The humble demand made by the early Congress leaders in respect to constitutional matters were: to increase the power of legislative councils; to include elected Indian representatives. It must be mentioned here that the British government of India paid scant regard to the above demands made by Congress.
d) Economic: In the economic sphere, Congress blamed the wrong policies of the British that resulted in rising poverty and economic repression of the Indian people. The Congress also put forward certain specific suggestions for the economic improvement of the country and her people. These included the introduction of modern industry, Indianization of public services, etc. The Congress also demanded the abolition of salt tax for the benefit particularly of the poor section of the people
The roots of India in the colonial rule of the British for more than 190 years left India starting with nearly zero when Congress took over in 1947. There was nothing much. India didn’t even have the resources to manufacture anything since the British left India since a lot of the wealth was taken away.
At the time Congress took over governance after the British left, electricity was available only in 20 villages across the country. Telephone facilities were available only to 20 rulers (kings) in this country. There was no drinking water supply. There were only 10 small dams. There were no hospitals, no educational institutions (except for some Christian missionary schools and hospitals, tea plantations, roads, bridges, railways, drainage system in some areas, but for the vast country, it was not enough). However, no fertilizers, feeds, and no water supply for cultivation. There were no jobs & steep starvation in the country. There were many infant deaths and very few military jawans at the border. India had only 4 planes, 20 tanks & fully open borders on all 4 sides of the country with very minimum roads and bridges. They left an empty exchequer. Nehru came to power under those circumstances.
The Indian National Congress raised India to have the world’s 4th largest Army with hundreds of war planes, tanks, missiles, various types of guns. Lakhs of industrial institutions started blooming over India, there is electricity in almost all villages with hundreds of electric power stations. There are lakhs of kilometers of national highways and over bridges. There are new railway projects, stadiums, super specialty hospitals. Most of the Indian households have television, telephone or mobiles freely available for all the country people. There is sophisticated infrastructure to work in and outside the country, there are banks, universities, AIMS, IITS, IIMS,nuclear weapons, sub-marines, nuclear stations, ISRO, and Navarathna Public sector units and the computer age was an innovation under Rajiv Gandhi and others. Under Congress, the literacy rate has increased to over 68% over the decades. When India gained independence, four out of five of her citizen could not read. Thanks to great initiatives and interventions over the years, three out of five Indians can now read and write.
The British reduced India to one of the poorest countries and diseases killed millions each time. After India gained its independence in 1947, mass deaths from famines were prevented. Since 1991, rapid economic growth has led to a sharp reduction in extreme poverty in India. The policies of former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, recording the fastest reductions in the multidimensional poverty index values during the period with strong improvements in areas such as “assets, cooking fuel, sanitation and nutrition,” a report by the United Nations said. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 implemented by Dr. Manmohan Singh played a revolutionary role in helping rural India.
A nation like India needs three things which only Congress can give, and without it, India’s soul will die.
Depth, History, Maturity and Ethos: No party in India has the ethos or maturity as the Indian National Congress. While everyone has the freedom to become a politician and build their own parties, it is extremely hard to carry that to a national level but the depths of Congress dive into the ocean because they are connected to the history of India, the freedom movement and the very ethos of the nation.
The Congress is the bridge between the past and the present and that connection is paramount in politics. In the USA, UK and other nations, no one has ever tried to eliminate Congress, founded on March 1789. There is no question of wiping out a party but here, there is a mission in India to wipe out Congres which is dangerously detrimental and treacherous to say the least. While any nation can spring forth and rebound with change, the diversities of India are so deep that it needs great wisdom and calmness to rule without stirring up trouble. Immature parties do it all the time. The Congress knows how to govern, but has to refresh itself in new ways.
An Ideology that Stands Alone: India can only survive in an inclusive atmosphere. The ideology of Congress is accepting of all, secular, and inclusive drawing in all people and all religions. The demography, ethnicity, and religiosity of India is stupendous and mind-blowing. India has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and four major families of languages, namely Indo-European, Dravidian, Austroasiatic, and Sino-Tibetan languages. Because of India’s rich ethnic roots, it needs a party with a deep maturity, which is rooted in the past. New up-shoot parties often are more self-seeking and that is why they fade away very fast.
Parties come and go, and people leave and join parties and the cycle goes on, but Congress, just like BJP is an ideology while the two are poles apart. An ideology can never die though the party can change, upgrade, renovate or even fall to pieces, but in the end of it all, the ideology will pick up their broken pieces and start to reinvent itself and the return will be more powerful. Thus, those seeking to destroy Congress will never succeed. The aim to wipe out Congress is actually an attempt to axe democracy in India.
Congress is Democracy at Peak Enabling Freedom for Innovation and Invention: Due to freedom and liberty, the Indian National Congress enabled builders, developers, trade, industry, manufacture, schools, growth, technology to flourish in an evolution of growth and expansion. The Industrial Revolution, Green Revolutional, and White Revolution took new heights under their rule. India does not need free handouts with citizens people demanding the government all the time, “What can you do for me?” If we keep looking at the government with a begging bowl, as some other parties do, distributing perennial handouts, nothing will grow and people will lose their innovative skills.
The ideology and governance and insight of the Congress allowed all people in all sections of society to rise up as stars. The question is, how much do you want? The sky is the limit.
Congress teaches you to fish, opening doors of opportunity for a simple farmer to grow crops and sell, a shopkeeper to happily run a shop, or a humble teacher to open up a small school. Millions of companies have mushroomed over the nation making people millionaires and billionaires while also providing jobs and earned richly, manufacturing units bloomed all over providing millions of jobs to people, There is sophisticated infrastructure to work in and outside the country, there are banks, universities, AIMS, IITS, IIMS,nuclear weapons, sub-marines, nuclear stations, ISRO, and Navarathna Public sector units have elevated Indian technology and nuclear powers and the computer age was an innovation under Rajiv Gandhi, Sam Pitroda and others which went global and enriched the Indian tech, who now earns over seven lakhs a month. Such are the possibilities and even more under a Congress regime.
By the way, one observation, in all the riots, violence, farmers protests, and rape of women, I saw one party rise up above all the others to defend the people, Congress….this is what I mean friends. The others were afraid of crossing ties with the ruling party and they lurk in the shadows of diplomatic fringes.
The Congress is not a person, but an ideology with a dogma, and a dogma can never die, lives forever, rooted richly in the past, reviving to build a greater future because it will always be evolving and always involving, and the people seeking Congress’ downfall are standing with an axe ready to cut a great big tree, but they don’t know that when they cut that tree, it will crash on them too and India’s soul wil die because the people will get fragmented and divided. To say Congress Mukh Bharat is like saying to a mother who nurtured you in infancy, now I’m independent, I don’t need you, get lost forever. This is nothing less than traitorship.
Rita
Comments