SENSELESS
| Date :20-Oct-2020 |
IT IS perfectly all right for an Opposition party to criticise the Government at every step of the way. It is very much expected of an Opposition party to act as a perfect watch-dog on the Government so as to restrict any abuse of power. But when a political party indulges in hollow cantankerousness shouting itself hoarse against the Government, then the people start losing faith in that party faster than anybody can imagine. This is happening with the Congress party whose leaders are constantly whining and blaming the Government for inexplicable reasons. And that is also the reason why the Congress party -- supposedly the leading Opposition party of the country -- is losing ground in popular mind because it is constantly criticising the Government senselessly.
The criticism of Congress Interim President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi that Indian democracy is passing through a very difficult phase -- which she aired before the party’s General Secretaries and State Incharges -- gets counted in that category. She also accused the Government of running the country with the help of a few crony-industrialists who have messed up the economy and harmed long-term national interests. There is nothing new in whatever Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has said by way of criticism of the Government.
And to say all those things repeatedly is her official business as the leader of the country’s premier political organisation that is described to have brought freedom to the country. But the difficulty is that the common people have stopped believing Mrs. Gandhi -- or Mr. Rahul Gandhi or Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra or any other leader for that matter -- because of their indulgence in statements sans wisdom. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s criticism of the Government also includes a scathing attack on the three new legislations about farming and farmers.
She and other Congress leaders have joined other Opposition parties in blasting the Government on that issue -- as if the Government has done something very sinful about the farmers. Mrs. Gandhi is not willing to recall how farmers’ suicides kept increasing in numbers during the Congress party’s long reign in power and how massive, nationwide farmers’ agitations came up during the Congress rule of years. The situation on the ground is exactly opposite of what the Congress party is saying. The Centre has popularly elected Government and election process is under way in some States. In fact, the common people have rejected the Opposition in a big way, so much so that the world appreciates the manner in which India has conducted its democratic processes in the most responsible manner. That is the reason the common are beginning to reject the Congress party all the more when its leaders talk of democracy in peril. This is nothing but crying oneself hoarse in an attempt to present a fake picture to the people.
Addressing the party secretaries, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi also said that the Government was trying to nullify the gains of Green Revolution and failing the policies of the earlier Governments. This behaviour is pushing India’s democracy into a very difficult phase, she contended. This is nothing but an attempt to impose a fake narrative on the people in an attempt to gain electoral advantage in Bihar to begin with. However, the Congress does not seem to realise its own limitations. Even during the seat-sharing talks, other Opposition parties did not give the Congress party good number of constituencies to contest the elections from.
That by itself is good enough to demonstrate what sort of ground the Congress party has lost in a State such as Bihar. Similar situation prevailed in Uttar Pradesh, too, and the Congress party found itself in a terrible position -- having lost much of its traditional ground. Bihar will repeat that history in the next some time, showing the Congress its own place. However, so blinded are the Congress leaders with their own fake narrative that they cannot see the writing on the wall. Never had the party faced such a decline in its 125--plus years of history.