She was super confident that he would never say agree to her proposal. She knew it in her heart that he would say no. But to her utter shock, not only did he say yes, but he also said the five magical words “yes, send us the list.”
I have never seen a political narrative getting punctured by a single sentence with mere five words. Have you? And if you think this was not a failed attempt to politicize a crisis, you don’t have to believe me just go through their own MLA who calls it a cruel joke or you could also refer to the article written by their own promoters like The Print; of course the portal will call it a goof-up caused by one of Priyanka Gandhi’s aide. Its never their fault, its always someone else’s but if it would have gone through it would have been their accomplishment.
But even if Yogi Adityanath had failed to call the bluff, how long would the party be able to politicize this migrant crisis? This strategy is short lived and can only be employed till the crisis exists. Look at what happened when the opposition parties tried to exploit the inconvenience caused by Demonetization. Its exactly the same, Mr. Gandhi was found standing in the ATM queues fetching four thousand and now he is found sitting with the migrants on roadside.
In fact the memes are also on the similar lines, last time he was made fun of his costly jacket, this time his shoes. Everything is exactly the same, as if the same stencil was used to draw the strategy. Be it MSME, or small businesses or poor people, or country’s GDP growth so on and so forth.
Don’t you think it is a bit weird for India’s oldest party who put the entire weight behind Mrs Vadra and still looked like a dwarf in front of a Chief Minister? I mean BJP’s national leadership did not even participate in this political tug of war. How did such a party rule India for decades? This article will provide you with the answer to this very question. How did Indian National Congress, who has been behaving like a headless chicken with no strategy in place whatsoever, rule India for so long? What has changed?
Ever since I started writing politics, I started reading politics, and a lot of it. I have been reading books, articles, journals, written by authors associated with various political parties, ideologies and of course various reports published by different government institutions. I have been referring to these sources and have quoted them in my articles. No matter which book I read, there was one thing in common in all of them. The answer to the above question was always in front of my eyes but I just didn’t connect the dots so far. I am pretty sure, if you don’t already know that, you would say “that’s so true”; at least that’s what I said once I understand the underlying modus operandi.
Let me ask you a simple question. When was the last time a non-congress party was in majority before 2014? Or in other words, when was the last time Congress was competing with a ruling political party as big as itself let alone bigger?
The answer is NEVER.
As soon as India got its independence, Congress came to power. The party has been since then using brute force that comes as a byproduct with the government of an independent country and its various institutions to incapacitate, suppress and eliminate opposition parties. The party never let healthy opposition survive. A healthy opposition means a healthy competition.
Let me give you some examples starting from the 1950s:
Do you know when was the first booth captured? By whom? And in which constituency? I used to think that these kinds of acts were orchastrated by some regional, smaller party or a party of goons. Since, Congress was occupying most of the space, these smaller parties might have wanted a place in the political sphere by using a shortcut. But I was wrong. It was Begusarai constituency in Bihar in late fifties and early sixties. Congress had prepped up Kamdev Singh to counter Communists and tried to win the election by threatening and intimidating Yadavs, maybe this is the reason why we see a Yadav vote bank today in UP and Bihar. Congress is in reality the mother of all miseries. You can find this instance and many like this in the book “When Crime Pays ” by Milan Vaishnav.
Muscle power is not the only thing that Congress used to crush the opposition. There was a political party that went by the name Swatantra Party (a party formed by some INC leaders who were tired of Nehru’s dominance). Although the party was in its nascent stages but was growing rapidly. It managed 6% votes and 18 seats in its first LS election and 8% votes and 44 seats in his second LS elections i.e. as many seats Congress got in 2014. The ruling congress was threatened by its growth. What did it do? Indira Gandhi made corporate funding illegal in 1969 and cut the source of funds for Swatantra Party. But if it cut the funds for one party, it cut the funds for ruling party too. So how was Congress generating funds to use during and before elections after the implementation of these acts? By inventing “briefcase politics“ welcome to the world of black money. “You need a license to something, bring a couple of briefcases“, “you need government’s approval to expand the production, bring these many briefcases.” I wrote a complete article on this, you could have a look at The Cash Nexus: Criminals and Politics. I have also mentioned all the sources I used in the article. A clear cut case of using administrative powers to manipulate/control elections.
Moving on to the early 70s. Indira Gandhi started using RAW for her on political benefits. The officers were used to keep tabs on certain politicians. There is book that goes by the name “The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane” by B. Raman. The book refers to instances like “I myself when posted in Paris got an instruction from the headquarter to dig out/track the where about of Mrs Leila Kabir, wife of late Mr. George Fernandes.” It gives not one but many instances where both Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi used RAW for their own political electoral benefits. I wrote a complete article on exploitation of RAW by Indira Gandhi and later Rajiv Gandhi, you can have a look at: Your Karma awaits you!
Moving ahead a few years, Congress was still facing issues retaining the power. What did th party do next? Stuff all the opposition leaders in jail, as simple as that. If there won’t be anybody outside, who will win? Emergency! Emergency! Easy peasy! Brutal use of power. Break the back bones of relatively bigger parties. Hundred small parties together can’t compete with a big party, not then and not now. They can only create a mess.
As an when the opposition was increasing political parties like BJP had started getting some traction, got some foot hold in some parts on India, the government was busy inventing novice ideas to avoid healthy competition and crush them. I can keep going, infact there can be a complete book written showcasing the tactics Congress used so as to never come in a position where it had to complete with any political party as big as itself let alone bigger. But I will quickly mention a few shining ones:
- In 1993, MPLADS was introduced, it was like paying a bribe of Rs 2,00,000/- every year to every MP to stay in power and keep the status quo as-is. It was a strategy to retain the support of MPs, MLAs and MLCs who otherwise would have pulled their support. I recently wrote an article about MPLADS, you could have a look here: MPLADS; How Congress legalized corruption!
- Ministry of Minority affairs was established in the same period. There is no constitutional basis of the ministry, the constitution does not even give a definition to the term Minority. It was a brilliant tactic to remain in power by appeasing one specific community that votes as one.
- Other than for untouchable class, there weren’t caste based reservations. OBC reservations was another brilliant tactic to stay in power. You could technically add anything in “others” as per your convenience, can’t you? Increasing the quotas at different times is just an extension of the above mentioned strategy to remain in power. Be it by increasing the quotas in 2008-09 or adding Muslim reservation quota in OBC category in 2011-12. You should definitely read an old article of mine When or How does a child become “caste-literate”? and the recent one The case of Wakfs and Economic status of Indian Muslims
- Or the populist actions like making the exams optional in 2009 in the name of RTE act. Please do read A Right to Unemployment for some more details about it.
All of these are the actions that only a government can take, and all of these are actions that win elections at the cost of nation’s well being. You pick a large group of people be it a caste, community or religion, and award them freebies, unfair advantage over others, who are they going to vote? And when the other left out communities and groups protest, tag them on the main opposition party.
The only difference between the Congress of that time and today’s time is that it isn’t able to use the institutions the way it wants. Congress does not know how to compete with a political party without an upper hand. If you think that Rahul Gandhi is a weak leader and Pt Nehru and Indira Gandhi were strong, Rahul Gandhi along with all of his forefathers i.e. Gandhis of the Nehru Dynasty never had to wrestle power away from a party as big as their own. They all are exactly the same with the same intellect, same IQ, same EQ, same political acumen. Don’t you ever forget that Indira Gandhi was called a “goongi gudiya“(mute doll). As soon as that “goongi gudiya” got power, she ripped apart the vocal chords of everyone and anyone that came in her way and made them mute. God forbid if Congress with Nehru-Gandhi family at the helm comes in the power again, it will happen in the exact same way. This person who you think as a mere joke, this “pappu” would literally make a dhol out of you and play beats on that, even before you would realize, what happened.
In the current form Congress is just creating circumstances and waiting for BJP to succumb to the artificial pressure and make a mistake. Bookmark this, as soon as BJP loses one General Election, there won’t be another to look up to. For the sake of the future generations, for the sake of our children, please read more books about how Congress had been ruling the country and be aware of the dangers. If you agree to this article please-please do share the content as much as possible. Unless people know the truth, they will keep on making the same mistakes again and again.
Thanks for reading!!!
Also read: Misconstrued Opposition; A flawed democracy that needs fixing
