Even though he has been disqualified as being a member of Parliament, after a Gujarat court declared him guilty in a 2019 defamation case, Rahul Gandhi continues with work and at present is busy campaigning for his party candidates who are all set to fight the elections in state of Karnataka. Gandhi has also pitched for a caste census and eliminate the reservation cap, which is being helmed as a masterstroke to defeat the ruling BJP. Other opposition have also supported this move, which Congress and other parties feel could bring them back many of the backward classes who have tilted towards the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party(BJP). Gandhi has also been busy meeting leaders of other parties, in a bid to put up a united front against the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.
Last year Gandhi spearheaded the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which was an endeavour to unite people in the fight against social disharmony and the economic problems the weaker sections of society are facing. Its motive was to fight against hatred, political centralization, unemployment and inflation. The mass movement walk started from Kanyakumari – at India’s southernmost tip and ended in the now union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It lasted for almost five months and Gandhi and his supporters walked a distance of more than 2500 miles. The Indian National Congress had stated that the intentions of the march were to unite India against the conflict-ridden and divisive politics. The Bharat Jodo Yatra movement was jointly launched by Rahul Gandhi and M.K. Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. It was a protest at what the Congress termed as a protest against the politics of prejudice, fear and bigotry. During the Bharat Jodo movement, the INC elected Mallikarjun Khagde as their new party president and also went on to win the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election of 2022, which was the party’s first majority triumph since 2018. People from all walks of life joined Gandhi in the march and some of the prominent people who supported his cause were Raghuram Rajan, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, L. Ramdas, former chief of naval staff and Ex Chief of India’s Research Analysis Wing (RAW) A.S. Dulat, who headed the organization when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was India’s Prime Minister.
By the virtue of the way politics functions, no political party is spared of its share of controversies, upheavals and gashes. Foreign Policy positions is a domain, the Indian National Congress had well articulated even before India became independent. In its first ever session in the year 1885, the INC condemned the British Indian Government’s annexing of upper Burma. in 1967. This was also a time when after India’s general elections, Indira Gandhi began tilting towards the political left. In the late 1960’s, Gandhi had major disagreements with senior INC leaders on a range of issues. She openly supported V.V Giri, who was an independent candidate instead of Neelam Sanjiva Reddy for the post of the Indian President. Before Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru had differences in opinion with leaders like Sardar Patel and Subhash Chandra Bose, especially with the former. Though they were both helmed as great leaders and were equally respected for their relentless involvement in India’s freedom struggle. Both were hailed as great leaders and commanded enormous respect for their part in India’s independence struggle. People, historians and politicians in India have assorted views on the Nehru-Patel animosity. Much of the rift has been attributed to the cause of Kashmir which Patel and Nehru perceived differently. As the story goes – the then defence committee awaited for officials to return from Jammu with the signed ‘Instrument of Accession,’ but Nehru wasn’t sure whether this was the right move or not, as Sheikh Abdulla, who played a pivotal role in the region’s independence didn’t want this to happen at any cost. The King of Kashmir Hari Singh had also left the state, and this is when Patel asked Nehru whether he wanted Kashmir or not. Both were great Indian leaders and continued to work together for nation building, albeit their different ways of working and approach to certain issues.
When Indira Gandhi all of a sudden nationalized India’s fourteen largest banks in India, she was expelled from the party on grounds of indiscipline. Gandhi then went on to launch Congress (R), a separate enitity of the Indian National Congress. The original party continued to function under leaders like Morarji Desai and Nijalingappa, amongst others and this party was called Congress (O). The leaders of this party advocated right winged politics. Congress (R) enjoyed the support of the majority of Congress MP’s, while Congress (O) only had 65 MP’s supporting it, so Gandhi was triumphant in her quest. There were certain Muslims like Syed Ahmed Khan, a renowned educationist who felt that the Congress was encouraging of Western cultural raid. Another jolt for Gandhi came in 1974, in the form of the Jai Prakash Narayan movement, also called the ‘Bihar Movement’ which was an agitation led by Narayan, the man who advocated socialism and created a mass movement against the corruption in the state government. JP’s movement became hugely popular and he and his followers turned against Indira Gandhi’s ruling government in the centre. Not able to fathom the growing opposition, Gandhi, imposed ‘Emergency’ in mid 1975, which till date remains one Indian history’s most contentious period since independence. The final decision to impose an emergency was proposed by Indira Gandhi, when an Indian High Court found her guilty of electoral malpractices and subsequently prohibited her from holding any elected post.
The Emergency period is seen as a dark phase in independent India’s history because dissent was attacked, there was uncontrolled state captivity and the ruling government suppressed all civil liberties. The press was censored and human rights were violated as well. The present Congress leadership is claiming a similar scenario is now prevalent in the country where freedom of expression is being blatantly stifled. The Hindenburg report brought to fore the Government’s closeness to the Adani Business Group, which Congress claims has hugely benefitted from the ruling party. The price of the shares of Adani Group plummeted overnight and the political opposition threw a fusillade of questions to the Government. “We are in totalitarian government,” says Atul Londhe Patil, Senior INC leader and Spokesperson from Maharashtra. Patil claims that the Adani Group’s growth is not natural growth, but it is all at the cost of corruption, crony capitalism, and this is because of the circular trading which Adani has done in diamonds. “They have done undervaluation of irons, overvaluation of coal, because of which people are paying more electricity bills,” concludes Patil. The Adani Group has since been in a difficult spot and has called certain reports of the media to be inaccurate and misleading, and also recently issued a statement about one certain media outlet.
“People of India are living in a state of fear psychosis and dissent has been become a crime,” says Sachin Sawant, another senior leader of the Congress. The leader further asserts as to why the Government did not form a Joint Parliamentary Committee to discuss the Adani issue if they are really not at any fault. At present the Congress wants to win in more Indian states, but problems continue to beset it. B.V. Srinivasa Rao, President of the Youth Congress was alleged of treating a woman Congress leader unfairly, to which the leader responded – “There is absolutely no truth in what she says. We believe in meritocracy and will accordingly promote candidates.” Srinivas was also in the midst of a storm when he supposedly uttered some derogatory remarks about India’s HRD Minister, which he claims are untrue and a tactic to defame him. He also shares a copy of the legal notice his lawyers have sent to BJP’s IT Cell.
Recently, Rahul Gandhi was also asked to vacate his official residence as he no longer qualifies to reside there. Since its inception the Congress has been through upheavals and also succeeded in making comebacks, but as of now India’s grand old party finds itself cornered. This may also be because today there are numerous political contenders, regional parties who are being helmed to be a better choice than the Congress, which means that the party will have to do a lot of recalibration and strategy alteration to make its presence felt once again at a national level.
[Photo by Sidheeq, via Wikimedia Commons]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
Shaumik Samar Ghosh is an author, journalist and columnist currently based in India.
