By Sushil Kutty
For the Congress, ever since Rahul Gandhi set out on his 3,750 km long Bharat Jodo Yatra, it has been one step forward and two steps backward thanks to some very controversial remarks made by Congress leaders including by Rahul Gandhi himself. Remarks that confuse and confound and which make the average Indian with no particular preference for party to think!
Anything and everything that makes people think has its upside and downside. And an army K9 knows that a thinking man/woman can take it places, win the war. Then, why aren’t Congress leaders aware? It is not that there aren’t thinking leaders in the Congress.
The Congress is not bereft of intelligent, logical and thinking leaders. For example, who would have thought AK Antony’s son Anil Antony would have a mind of his own and speak a different truth about the BBC documentary ‘The Modi Question’, different from the line taken by the party of his father.
Freedom of expression! Anil Antony’s objection had to do with the BBC appropriating for itself a moral high that belittled the Supreme Court of India, which had exonerated Narendra Modi.
Having said that Antony Jr., shouldn’t have quit and run. The Congress is a self-proclaimed hub of different points of view, which is why Congress leaders can make earth-shaking contrary statements that are completely out of line with the party’s line and make a clean getaway, because the Congress can always distance itself with the “it’s his/her personal view”.
That is part of the reason why the Bharat Jodo Yatra has been battling the ‘one-step-forward, two-steps-backward’ syndrome throughout the length of the smooth-going yet often rugged terrain. For instance, Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on Savarkar made when the BJY entered Maharashtra.
The timing and the terrain both told a story. It was made to create a controversy. And it hit home. But did the controversy help the Congress? Did Rahul Gandhi open a ‘Mohabat Ka Dukaan’ in Maharashtra with those remarks on Veer Savarkar? For all Rahul knew, the Congress made more enemies than friends, thereby defeating the core purpose of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
Which brings up the question, why does Congress leaders like Digvijaya Singh make controversial remarks on heroic figures and exalted institutions, casting doubts on the Indian Army’s 2016 “surgical strikes” inside POK, which inspired the film ‘Uri’ with ‘How’s the Josh!’ And to think that Singh was smiling when he asked for proof!
Again, raising several unpalatable questions. Like, for example, who was Digvijaya Singh trying to please/appease, impress, other than Pakistanis? Is there a constituency in India which derives pleasure when the Indian Army is demeaned, humiliated? If so, name it.
The Congress would know that the needle of suspicion automatically falls on a particular community, a “vishesh samuday”, which even otherwise has to go the extra mile to prove its loyalty to the tricolour. Isn’t Digvijaya Singh doing injustice to not only the “brave-hearts”, but also to a vulnerable community?
Or, does such remarks fetch winning votes for the Congress? The long and short is, why do Congress leaders for no rhyme or reason make themselves “ridiculous” in front of the Indian people? Does the Congress high-command think that every Congress worker and Congress supporter has a shared dislike for the Indian Army?
There must be tens of thousands of Congress workers and diehard Congress supporters who have kin in the Indian Armed Forces and they wouldn’t be happy with Digvijaya Singh, who happens to be a “serial offender”, for the damning comments that demonize the Indian Armed Forces.
Some would go to the extent of labelling Digvijaya Singh repulsive. The man takes a certain visible pleasure in casting the Indian Army to the wolves when everybody is looking, a vicarious pleasure and a happiness that curls the smile at both ends! A smug smirk that does not leave till he has said his damning piece.
In the hours since the time the two-time Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh cast doubts on the Army’s surgical strikes, he must have alienated tens of thousands of Indians who have loved the Indian Army but were also immune to the BJP’s lure.
For some inexplicable reasons, the Congress appears to be in the delusion that it will come to power on the back of casting the Indian Army in the cesspit. There is no hard and fast formula that says painting the Indian Army in ‘besharam rang” will endear the Congress to the Indian electorate.
Neither will sycophancy help. Anil Antony in his parting shot spoke of the culture of sycophancy in the party he was quitting for good. The message must have gone home to “Father Antony”. By giving Digvijaya Singh a piece of his mind, and calling Singh’s anti-Army comments “ridiculous”, Rahul Gandhi’s message must have gone home to everybody in the Congress that the Indian Army is not for Congress leaders to make ridiculous remarks that help the BJP win the right to rule. (IPA Service)
