There are two aspects to the churning going on in national politics at present. One is that despite being in minority in the Lok Sabha, BJP has done the miracle of making India a country ruled by almost one party. And secondly, this work is being done by breaking the regional parties and now Congress is the only significant opposition party left. In this way Indian politics has turned into a two-party equation. This should have been a very simple and straightforward equation, provided Congress had posed a strong challenge. But it cannot do this with only 10 percent victory rate against BJP. By the way, the two-party system will suit the BJP very well, because it has to struggle only with powerful regional parties and most of such parties have been weakened. Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party will be tested by Yogi in the upcoming contest. Now 3 questions arise. First: Why does BJP find Congress such a convenient rival? Second: What is lacking in Congress that it cannot become a credible challenge? Third: How should Congress rescue itself? The answer to the first question is very simple: BJP is flying on the basis of four engines – Hindutva, nationalism, efficient implementation of public welfare programs and development of huge infrastructure which is visible to everyone. Congress does not have any credible answer to all this, it answers another question. According to Congress, what BJP is doing is wrong, so the question arises, what will it do after coming to power? What will Congress do differently from BJP on the fronts of economy, strategic issues and defence? How will it deal with Pakistan, China, America and West Asia? How will she spend on defence? What is its blueprint for the future as an alternative to BJP? If BJP, according to him, is capitalist and is compromising with national interests, then what will it do that will be different? If Congress considers itself an alternative that voters would choose over BJP, then what is it offering differently? Congress will have to answer all these questions first. Apart from this, we will have to find answers to the four engines that gave rise to the flight of BJP. First of all, take Hindutva. Congress should not even try to compete with BJP on this front. This land has been won and Congress cannot make any dent in it, no matter how many temples its leaders visit. Even Shiv Sena has given up this effort. In fact, Uddhav Thackeray once told me, somewhat philosophically, that his father made a mistake by abandoning the cause of Maharashtraism and adopting Hindutva, because it gave the BJP an opportunity to step in and capture Shiv Sena’s territory. On the issue of public welfare, Congress can promise to put the whole world in its hands. By doing this he achieved success in Karnataka and Telangana. He may have to face problems in terms of infrastructure. Over the years, it has been seen opposing many big projects, Nicobar project is the latest example. So the issue of religion is beyond his reach, the issue of public welfare/development is so undisputed that sentimentality cannot be added to it. So, only the issue of nationalism remains for Congress. How Congress has rejected the issue of nationalism is the most mysterious aspect of its politics after 2014. Some of its leaders today may be trying to look like the environmentalist leaders of Europe, but the real Congress has never been a party of pacifists crying tears of blood. This has been the party which, under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, divided Pakistan into two parts in 1971 and won the 1965 war under the rule of Lal Bahadur Shastri in the sense that it had driven back Pakistan, which had attacked with the intention of capturing Kashmir. The Congress also fought the rebels in the north-east brutally, laying siege to Aizawl on 5 March 1966 by dispatching Air Force aircraft to prevent the rebels from capturing the government treasury, the battalion headquarters of the Assam Rifles and the residence of the Deputy Commissioner. Under Operation Bluestar, he sent the army to the Golden Temple. After this, Operation Black Thunder was also done. The first two operations were done during the era of Indira Gandhi and the last two operations were done during the era of her son Rajiv Gandhi. Subsequently, Congress fought the bloodiest phase of terrorism and separatism in the Kashmir Valley and Punjab (1991–95). This was done during the time of PV Narasimha Rao. Even during the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Naga rebels were fought with the harshest methods. Nehru had sent army to liberate Goa. Congress may not like its Prime Ministers who were not from the Nehru family, but the fact is that it has never had any leader who was weak in matters of national security. That is why one wonders how the original party of nationalism lost its way. Be it the ‘surgical strike’ after the Uri incident or the air strike on Balakot after the Pulwama incident or the crisis in Eastern Ladakh/Galwan or Operation Sindoor – Congress did its own harm by raising questions on everything and demanding evidence. In Rahul Gandhi’s statement in Parliament on the issue of Operation Sindoor, the emphasis was on how many aircraft India lost and why. An MP from Punjab from his party even displayed a piece of a downed Indian Air Force plane. How smart a move can all this be called? If Congress wants, it can start a debate on nationalism. Indian nationalism has emerged from shared sentiments about our history, freedom movement and Constitution. BJP has Hinduized it. Congress can raise debate on this issue. But if he continues his current attitude, no one will believe him. (These are the author’s own views.)
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Shekhar Gupta’s Column: Why did Congress distance itself from the issue of nationalism?
