TeaCongress is actively considering appointing Ashok Gehlot as working president and handing over Rajasthan to Sachin Pilot. Gehlot is not ready for this promotion at all. There is also a perception in the party that Sonia Gandhi would like to see son Rahul officially leading the party. Amidst this confusion and uncertainty, no significant change, good or bad, is going to change the fortunes of the Congress party so much as a serious attempt to understand what the ruling BJP is doing.
Congress is in the midst of a war, but it is defending itself with a naval arsenal while it is being fiercely attacked from the air.
The Congress has been out of power for eight years, but it has not yet taken into account the BJP’s understanding of the party. Ask any senior Congress leader what is the BJP’s understanding of contemporary politics including its grip on the world of opposition? Their usual reaction would be rhetoric, jealousy and the arrogant belief that the BJP leader and his supporters are communal, uneducated and uncivilized.
A critical study of the tweets and statements of Congressmen, including Rahul Gandhi, gives an insight into their coolness of mind that goes no further than the ‘clearly communal and mediocre BJP’. This arrogant attitude does not get him anywhere close to resolving the current issues inside and outside the party.
The lack of clarity in the Congress is not just on whether Rahul Gandhi is the president or a non-family man or there are internal elections. A debilitating lack of clarity pervades everything: should Rajasthan be handed over to Sachin Pilot, what is the party, what should its makeover look like and what issues should it raise?
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BJP now defines Congress
Over the past decade, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP has been channeling its energies into systematically highlighting that the Congress regime has always been corrupt, that the party is born and survives. . familialism, and that the Congress led by Sonia Gandhi has adopted a policy of appeasement towards Muslims. Even though all the parties including BJP are facing issues of corruption and nepotism, but the Congress is facing more charges.
Sonia Gandhi accepted In his 2018 Mumbai address that “BJP has been able to convince people ‘we are a Muslim party'”. He said the party was “pushed to a corner” because of this branding by the BJP. If one looks at his confession from a different angle, it shows the weight of the Congress. The party has never been off-the-radar for the BJP. At the same time, BJP has kept its stand strong on the issues of integrity, terrorism and security of the country.
The Congress’s glorious history, Gandhi-Nehru-Patel legacy, and brand recognition across India are more than enough for it, even when in power and out of power. The Aam Aadmi Party, which is considered a new challenger, has none of these characteristics, but it has been able to defeat the Congress in Punjab because people dislike confusion and uncertainty.
If—this is a big deal—there is an ‘anti-vote’ by the people against the BJP at the national level, then it will be beneficial to the Congress by default. In the Lok Sabha elections, no other party is standing in a direct contest against the BJP on the number of seats that the Congress has. Hence Amit Shah’s call to his party workers “Congress-free India” was not a fast strategy.
No matter how weak the top position of the Congress is in favor of the opposition, the BJP understands this very well.
When the party staged a vigorous protest on the streets on 5 August over the issues of inflation and unemployment, none other than Amit Shah issued a statement to demean the Congress. He gave the protest a politically mischievous turn, Saying That Congress leaders chose to wear black as part of the politics of “appeasement” to protest the foundation stone of a Ram temple by PM Modi in Ayodhya on the same day in 2020. He said, “Congress The real pain of Shri Ram Mandir is to be builtHe kept it unsaid that this was also the day Article 370 was scrapped. The Congress was furious and reacted furiously but did not address Shah’s target audience. This was partly partly due to his ouster from power for several years. This was due to the hangover and partly due to the vertical division within the top leadership over the style and substance of politics that the party should engage in to take on the BJP and connect with the people, which includes Modi Voters.
As a shrewd party observer put it, “Congress Whether to make Hindu or not, who in that party does not know. (No one in the party knows whether Congress should adopt Hindu identity or not).” It is playing with its own identity.
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‘Hindu means BJP’
It is clear that the BJP’s entire focus is to see that the Congress does not succeed in approaching the Hindutva issue on which it is trying to claim a monopoly. BJP’s politics has many dimensions, including negative aspects, but the party’s sense of purpose remains intact. This is happening in a country where 80 percent of the people are Hindus.
In the last decade, the BJP has put all its eggs in the Hindu basket. It has invested a lot in acquiring the image of ‘Hindu India’s honest caretaker’. Now, it wants to secure its investment. ‘Congress should not be allowed to become hindu (Cannot let Congress carry out a Hindu coup)’ is one of the policies of the BJP to deal with the Grand Old Party.
Prime Minister Modi’s astounding success is no mistake in recognizing and embracing all the issues that the orthodox Hindu society feels strongly. To strengthen its support base, the BJP has worked hard to keep the Congress on edge by raising issues such as the Batla House encounter and Rahul Gandhi’s JNU visit in support of the agitating students, which the BJP has labeled.Fragments the gang.”
Modi’s development agenda, his diplomacy, and his weaving of personality cult – nothing ever hurts the BJP’s Hindutva. The party wants to create an illusion that “Hindu means BJP”.
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Congress riddle
The BJP has been consistently and vigorously raising issues to prevent the Congress from becoming the outspoken party of Indira Gandhi of the pre-Emergency era (1966–1974). “He had a monopoly on the issues of”Integrity and Unity of India:Both. The BJP has not only grabbed the legacy of Congressman Sardar Patel, but has also tried to imbibe the principles of Indira Gandhi’s art of governance.
It is not that Congress does not have the intelligence to understand this game. But it has a fault line at the top. Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Siddaramaiah, K. Raju and many other loyalists are determined to take the Congress to the opposite pole of the BJP. While Priyanka Gandhi, Ashok Gehlot, Randeep Surjewala, Digvijay Singh and Bhupesh Baghel look at the gameplan of the BJP.
in Udaipur contemplation camp In May, Baghel asked his teammates, “We also celebrate Ram Navami and Diwali. Why should BJP hijack it?”
In 2019, the BJP won 303 seats, a vote share of 37.4 per cent – almost double the vote share of the Congress. With a vote share of 19.5 per cent, the Congress’s erosion was sharp. These are disappointing figures for the Congress, but at the height of the Modi wave, around 55 per cent of the votes were against the NDA. The BJP, accepting this reality, works thoughtfully.
There are vast sections of the ‘secular-liberal’ class, various non-Hindu religious minorities, provincial non-Hindi sections and traditional anti-RSS family Votes to address, but Congress is engrossed in the agenda set by the BJP.
With another leader like Anand Sharma exit His post, the Congress is far from making up for its shortcomings to take on the BJP ahead of the 2024 elections. Beyond rhetoric, big leaders need to understand BJP’s politics better, but this is nowhere.
Sheela Bhatt is a senior journalist based in Delhi. Thoughts are personal.