Achievements and controversies of Congress in last one year
July 14, 2015
Published in elections.in (http://www.elections.in/blog/achievements-and-controversies-of-congress-in-last-one-year/)
The aura of dominion surrounding the Gandhi family got the biggest blow after the Congress party’s disastrous performance in the last general elections. The Party President Sonia Gandhi – the indomitable queen of the United Progressive Government at the Centre – is no more as iron-fisted as she was once. Her son and Congress scion Rahul is now grotesquely being painted as ‘Pappu’ or a moron – a subject of demeaning jokes that now trend on social media platforms.
It indeed has been a phenomenal fall for the Congress’s first family – from a position of invincibility to being a subject of ridicule. The Bharatiya Janata Party and its right wing associates have missed no opportunity to target them viciously at every given opportunity. Despite the Congress’s demand, the government refused to accord the Leader of Opposition status to the Congress president when the Congress brazenly asked for such a favour in spite of the fact that it had failed the required numbers to stake the claim on the coveted post. With just 44 Lok Sabha seats in its kitty, it woefully falls short of the required 10 per cent seats to legitimise its demand! To add salt to the injury, Congress went on losing elections after elections in states – being relegated to a dismal third (as in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand), and fourth position (as in Jammu and Kashmir). It was completely wiped out in Delhi, drawing a blank in the assembly elections in the national capital in February this year!
Obviously, corruption and ill-governance were the reasons for the electoral defeats of the Congress. In all the above mentioned states as well as the Centre where it faced the ignominy of defeat, it was the ruling party, thus partially contributing towards realizationof Narendra Modi’s call for a “Congress Mukt Bharat Nirman (Congress-free development of India)” that alluded to the Congress being the culprit of all the ills that inflicted our country!
Amidst such unprecedented rout, the foreign junkets of the Gandhis too, added to their woes. On one hand, these jaunts kept the rumour mongers busy, on the other hand they offered enough fodder to the rivals to dig on the “disappearance”, particularly that of the party vice president Rahul. “Missing MP” posters in his parliamentary constituency, Amethi, marked Rahul’s almost two-month sabbatical at some undisclosed foreign destination right during the Budget session of Parliament.
There were even reports of Rahul’s purported rift with her mother over the way the party was being run and that he wanted to don the mantle of the Party President instead of Sonia. The palace intricacies were growing also in the wake of a growing demand within the party for Rahul’s younger sister Priyanka Vadra! ‘Waqt ki pukar, Priyanka Gandhi’ (The need of the hour is Priyanka Gandhi), and, ‘Priyanka Lao Congress Bachao (Bring Priyanka; Save Congress)’ were the banners raised at the Congress headquarters in October last year after after the party’s humiliation at the hustings in Maharashtra and Haryana. Unlike Rahul, Priyanka at least had come through with flying colours in her twin responsibilities of managing the parliamentary constituencies of her mother Sonia, and her brother – Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively.
Even Priyanka has troubles in the offing because of her husband Robert Vadra’s alleged involvement in controversial land deals in Haryana and Rajasthan that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has ubiquitously termed as ‘Damadgate’ a la ‘Watergate’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, time and again, raked up this issue and reaped a rich harvest in Haryana, where the BJP clinched the elections for the first ever time.
Yet, what created an even bigger controversy was the Gandhi family’s June junket. Sonia and Priyanka had left before Rahul and had arrived a day before Rahul on June 30. But the family’s “short international visit” has ever since generated much heat politically following tweets by tainted ‘fugitive’ billionaire, Lalit Modi that he was “happy to meet” the “Gandhi family…in London…”. While Priyanka denied any such meeting, much damage was already done. LaMO, on his part, succinctly corrected himself with another tweet saying he had met Priyanka and her husband Robert Vadra “last year and the year before”. But by then LaMo had already succeeded in taking the wind out of the Congress’s sail and made the party perceptibly drop its aggressive stand against the government over LaMo’s (dubious) links with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia and her son, Dushyant!
The party though did have a brief though temporary respite when in the assembly by-polls last August and September, it managed to wrest the Bahoriband Assembly seat from the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh and even clinched three assembly seats in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, Gujarat!
To the credit of the Congress and its leaders Sonia and Rahul, despite being written off and in the face of a smear campaign by the right wing parties against them, they have displayed the tenacity to hold their forte. Dislodging all speculations to the contrary, Sonia remains the Party President while Rahul prefers to be a foot soldier traversing village after village to win the confidence of the poor by displaying his empathy with the drought affected farmers whether in Punjab, Telangana or Vidarbha.
Sonia and her party’s attempts to emerge as the rallying point of the Opposition parties against the steamrolling BJP too, drew a mixed response. Sonia was able to muster the support of other opposition parties to successfully rake up the Rahul snooping row as the Janata Dal (United) and Samajwadi Party joined the Congress in giving notices for adjournment of Question Hour to debate the snooping issue in Lok Sabha in March this year after the Delhi police personnel visited Rahul Gandhi’s residence for ‘profiling’ the Congress Vice President when the latter was holidaying abroad.
Desperate to reclaim the Congress’s position on the political centre stage, Sonia is using all ploys. She even led 14 opposition parties to the President to protest the government’s stand on the Land Acquisition Bill.
While the Congress succeeded in taking along the Left and other Opposition parties, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (AIADMK), Bahujan Samaj Party and the Biju Janata Dal had not joined the march from Parliament House to the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Although the Congress succeeded in stalling the passage of the Land Acquisition Bill in the Rajya Sabha, it got only limited success in stalling other contentious bills such as the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill and the Mines and Minerals Bill, which showed that there was no such unanimity on the Congress’s leadership position as of now.
Yet, the Congress did get some reasons to feel triumphant when the Biju Janata Dal— with 20 MPs in the Lok Sabha and seven in the Rajya Sabha — that was earlier “equidistant” from the Congress and the BJP, sided with the Congress in moving statutory resolutions against the introduction of government Bills such as the Land Acquisition Bill, the Mines and Minerals Bill, and the Coal Mines Bill, in their present form during the budget session! But this unity was short-lived as the BJD as well as the Samajwadi Party finally sided with the BJP and helped the government pass the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015 without any change, and the Mines and Minerals Bill (after some amendments) in the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress is obviously making all attempts to remain politically alive. The way it has put the BJP on the mat over the Vyapam scam (refer to http://www.elections.in/blog/what-is-vyapam-scam-and-what-are-its-implications/) clearly shows its potential as a rabble rouser. But what the grand old party needs to keep its boat afloat is a proper introspection on whether it retains its dynastic approach and re-evolve around the Gandhi family, or decentralize. The much sullied Rahul has time and again shown his inclination for the devolution of power within the party, but finally it will be his mother who, ironically, needs to take a call on the issue. After all, despite the controversies surrounding the Gandhis, one cannot overlook their achievements too – in shaping the destiny of the Congress and, the country
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