CONGRESS party’s so-called mod and extremely westernised ideologue Mr. Sam Pitroda -- sitting in a foreign land -- has exposed the negative philosophy and policy of his party about what he may love to describe as ‘socio-economic justice’. Citing an American law of inheritance as demonstrating a correct approach to the issue, Mr. Sam Pitroda has said that he finds the law “interesting” since it allows control of only 45% of the inherited wealth to be handed over to the succeeding generations while the Government “grabs” the rest 55% of that inherited wealth. Countless people in the country, including Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi, have termed the Pitroda statement as an affront to the Indian thought of legacy that travels down the generations. Possibly sensing that the issue may push it in deep trouble, the Congress party appears to have distanced itself from the Pitroda assertion and the antagonistic nationwide reaction to the statement. No matter that, the Congress party finds itself pushed to the wrong side of the divide on this issue -- a condition that it can hardly afford in the election period. True, Mr. Sam Pitroda tried his best to wriggle out of the jumble by stating that he did not mean what is being interpreted by others. Yet, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the leading lights of the Modi Government are in no mood to miss the advantage of the situation and have stepped a strong campaign against the Congress party as anti-people.

 

The Prime Minister even asserted that the Congress party intended to snatch people’s genuine earnings and redistribute those with other have-nots. He also cited the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as saying that the first right on national resources is that of the Muslim community. The heat of this anti-Congress drive is being felt severely in the Congress camp. No matter its bravado, the Congress leadership finds itself on the wrong side of public opinion, and will have to undertake a lots of corrections to resurrect itself from a negative image. It must be admitted that the members of the larger Indian society are very touchy about inheritances. When a country is buying about 700 tonnes of gold every year, its members are not likely to listen to the crap some elements may dish out as a new social narrative. It is against this background that the common people are not going to accept even a hint of the Congress party’s plan of carrying out a nationwide survey of people’s inherited wealth so that the have-nots in the society may be given an appropriate share of excess wealth from other people. The trouble with the Congress party is that in recent years, it has lost connect with the Indian thought-process in different fields. It is trying to follow an inexplicably anti-Indian agenda to pursue its political interests.

 

Those who understand politics in its fine nuances realise that the Congress party is following a strange agenda not because it cares for the people but mainly because it is playing into the hands of some anti-India forces operating from outside the country. Initially, the common people did not believe this theory. But with passage of time, common people, too, believe that the Congress party has changed in its core values. It may not be acceptable to sanity that an Indian political party can take such a stance. Yet, as facts shout themselves hoarse, the common people now tend to believe that the Congress party may be harbouring such a political agenda following a wrong brand of socio-economic justice. It is unfortunate that Indian politics is dogged by such controversies that should have had no business being there in the first place. That is the actual trouble with Indian political discourse -- particularly during election-time.