The political tug-of-war between the parties in India is still relentless. But is there hope for Congress, especially after AAP’s member disqualification.
Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken’s relentless attacks on Aam Aadmi Party conforms to the model that Congress began to subscribed ever since its decline started following the rise of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Call it the model of comeback built on the assumption that BJP’s Hindutva and misgovernance will scare left-liberals, the genteel right wing, and the ideologically neutral into voting for Congress. Where else can these disenchanted groups go but flock to the tent of India’s grand old party? After all, it is the only national alternative to BJP. Congress has to only ensure that state-based parties take away as few anti-BJP votes as possible in order for it (Congress) to return to power.
This deeply flawed model of comeback has inspired Maken to train his guns on AAP instead of BJP. True, Congress feels bitter at AAP having grown at its expense in Delhi. It is also true that as an opposition party it must raise issues on which the ruling party is found wanting. It is indeed the right of Congress to rebuild itself for a comeback.
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Yet Congress leaders and their supporters never miss an opportunity to emphasise the necessity of forging a broad front to take on BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The need of the hour, they say, is to reconcile competing interests among Opposition parties to check Hindutva’s ascendancy and the Modi government’s growing authoritarianism. Or else, India’s democracy will be imperiled, and the cherished values of the Republic will be eroded, the Congress argues.
But such worries begin to sound hypocritical when there is a gross mismatch between its rhetoric and action. Maken has created tremendous sound and fury over AAP’s parliamentary secretaries even though the Congress government in Karnataka has 10 of them, each having the status and salaries equivalent to that of a minister. A week before the Election Commission recommended to the President that 20 AAP MLAs should be disqualified for holding “office of profit”, Maken had met Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti urging him to take the precipitate measure.
In July 2016, Maken had sought to become a party to the “office of profit” case, but the Election Commission rejected his plea. Perhaps Maken believes bye-elections in the 20 seats (which could be vacated following AAP MLAs disqualification) in Delhi could provide Congress a chance to enter the Assembly, where it doesn’t have a seat, and prove his mettle to the Congress high command. As of now, he and his party seem to be punching well above their weight; bye-elections to these 20 seats are likely to boost BJP’s tally, giving it yet another victory to crow about.
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