What does Amit Shah mean by Congress – free India statement
September 9, 2014
(Published todayhttp://www.elections.in/blog/what-does-amit-shah-mean-by-congress-free-india-statement/)
What does a “Congress- free India” mean? Doesn’t it allude to the Congress being the culprit for all the ills that we have in today’s Indian society? How justifiable is such an argument? Can we term it as a calculated and systematic ploy of its arch rival – the Bharatiya Janata Party – to denigrate the Congress in the people’s eye to an extent that it becomes an object of hate and disdain? Yet, more importantly, is such a scenario probable?
War of Nerves between BJP and Congress
One could well articulate the differences between the Congress of yore that fought for our freedom, and the Congress remote controlled by the Nehru-Gandhi family, which is now being singled out for rampant corruption, inflation and poverty. Whether such charges of corruption stick to the grand old party is a different subject matter altogether that merits a careful study in the wake of the fierce sabre-rattling between an upbeat BJP and defiant Congress supporters.
Yet these types of slogans to hype up the anti-incumbency factors in elections have often worked wonders for their propagators.
Yet these types of slogans to hype up the anti-incumbency factors in elections have often worked wonders for their propagators.
We know that it was Narendra Modi, who within hours of being appointed as the BJP’s central campaign committee chairman in June last year gave a call for a “Congress Mukt Bharat Nirman (Congress-free development of India).” His purpose was clear – to confront the then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government with a powerful message to highlight its failures. Thus the slogan became a part of his elections speeches and media interviews across the country where he succeeded in projecting the Congress as the fountainhead of corruption and inefficiency — “Corruption is Congress’ ornament… hence if India is to be made corruption-free, then it should be first Congress-free India.”
Modi : Architect of Catchy Slogans
However, there was a cache. Modi was careful enough to ensure that his call for a Congress-free India referred only to the Congress of Sonia Gandhi because, with Congress icon Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as his role model, how could he dispute the party’s historic role in the freedom struggle of the country? The Gujarat BJP strongman was clear that the people wanted a change and the slogan that he had coined could effectively say it all – bad-governance free India; Vote bank politics free India; dynastic rule free India, and an India free from the constant misuse of Constitutional institutions by successive Congress governments.
He proved right. His party members acknowledged that the election had found a “clear expression of that message” and this was evidently clear as the said slogan in combination with similarly catchy catchphrases to degrade the Congress such as ‘Achhey Din Aane Wale Hain’ (Better days are round the corner) worked for Modi and the BJP post elections. The Congress party reached its nadir and was on the verge of annihilation as it could bag only 44 seats in the general elections – 11 short of qualifying as a legitimately recognised political group in the Lok Sabha!
BJP Eyeing Assembly Elections
So doesn’t it make sense for Modi’s protégé and the new BJP president Amit Shah to stick to the same time-tested slogan of his mentor at a time when a troubled Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana face Assembly elections? Another state, Delhi may also face elections (here though the present assembly is in suspended animation and the BJP is trying to avoid fresh elections). Besides Vadodara (Gujarat), Medak (Andhra Pradesh) and Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) parliamentary constituencies and 33 Assembly constituencies across nine states too face by-elections on September 13.
It is important to note that each of the four states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand that go to polls soon, has either a Congress or a Congress-supported government there.
Isn’t it, therefore, imperative for Amit Shah to swear by the tested mantra of his mentor to whip up sentiments and a perceived anti-incumbency wave in the poll going states? After all, isn’t the BJP president a Modi understudy? Obviously, exhorting party workers to complete the PM’s unfinished agenda of a “Congress-free India” will do a lot of good to his own political prospects.
Targeting the Congress Ideology
Yet, unlike Modi’s campaign, Shah seems to have taken a different tangent. His interpretation of a Congress-free India has a much larger connotation – to get the country rid of the Congress ‘vichar’ (thought or idea) itself. “For long Congress ‘vichar’ (thought) has been predominant in the country’s politics. Now it is time to ensure that our ‘vichar’ (thought) has an imprint on the nation’s politics,” he has been quoted as saying.
What does such a remark portend? It is a fact that the Congress still rules a number of Indian states. As a party president, obviously Shah has a task cut out for him – to build and expand his party’s base. He seeks to accomplish it at an ideological level. There is nothing wrong with it. But is it a realistic proposition?
Obviously no other political party in the country than the Congress has seen as many splits and splinters in the annals of modern Indian history. None has either ruled the country for as many years as the Congress in its several avatars. It withstood a ‘total revolution’ of iconic Jaya Prakash Narayan in the ’70s.
Congress: Struggling to Stay Relevant
Much issue has been made out of Mahatma Gandhi’s suggestion to disband the Congress after India attained Independence in the last general elections too. The political rivals including Modi repeatedly referred to this historical fact in their election rallies with an obvious political twist -
“Gandhi-ji in his last days wanted to disband the Congress. He wanted a Congress-free India. And we will fulfill his wish.”
Here I wish to recall my interview with eminent Gandhian scholar Narayan Desai, the son of Mahatma Gandhi’s secretary Mahadev Desai. Desai, now in his nineties said though Gandhi was completely in support of disbanding the Congress, he actually wanted it to be changed into a Lok Sevak Sangh “which was the positive part of it and that was never even considered in the Congress Working Committee”. He went on to say that had the Congress been disbanded then, it could have prevented our ever growing dependence on the government – “What (Mahatma) Gandhi wanted was the people to be dependent on themselves rather than the government”.
Yet, the BJP’s call for a Congress-free India has varied insinuations. It could be termed as a masterstroke by the BJP to decimate a political force that ruled India for the maximum years since Independence. Yet, it could also be misconstrued as a call to muzzle the Opposition voices in a democratic set-up by targeting a top political party of the country. As of now, the party is struggling to regain its feet in the political firmament of the country after being bulldozed by a rampaging Modi-led BJP.
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