1151 POSTS
Shekhar Gupta is Editor-in-Chief of ThePrint and one of India’s most distinguished journalists. A recipient of the Padma Bhushan and multiple journalism awards, he has reported on key events in India and from around the world since the 1980s. At ThePrint, he does a daily online show, Cut the Clutter, in which he dissects, analyses, and contextualises complex daily news developments and current affairs. He also writes his weekly column National Interest.
I feel we are heading to a 2 party state like the USA
This piece is fundamentally disingenuous. The Congress never possessed a coherent, foundational doctrine of “hard nationalism.” By treating India as a blank slate created in 1947 rather than an ancient civilization reclaiming its sovereignty, they created a structural vacuum.
When Mr. SG laments that Congress is ceding ground to a dominant BJP, he writes as if it’s a minor tactical error in political “footwork.” It is not. It is the structural collapse of an elite, post-independence framework that consistently placed global validation, selective history-writing, and appeasement over hard national security. You cannot spend 80 years treating the country’s sacred geography, resources, and civilizational identity as negotiable assets and then act surprised when the regular Indian voter completely rejects you.
To call a leader strong just because they used the military inside the country against their own people is a joke. True nationalism means protecting the nation’s borders, its resources, and its history from both external enemies and internal threats alike. When you look at actual actions instead of empty political talk, the post-1947 ruling establishment has left a permanent record of weakness and surrender.
1) The Nehru Era
The Ladakh Surrender: When China stole thousands of square kilometers of Indian land in Aksai Chin, Prime Minister Nehru actually stood up in Parliament and dismissed the loss by saying it was a remote area “where not a blade of grass grows.” To a true nationalist, every inch of the motherland is sacred. To dismiss stolen land just because grass doesn’t grow there is a complete betrayal—and our soldiers are still paying the price for that laziness along the border (Line of Actual Control) today.
The Kashmir Blunder: Instead of letting the army finish the job and clear out invaders in 1948, Nehru stopped the military advance and dragged a purely Indian matter to the United Nations. By inviting international outsiders into our territory, he turned a clear case of foreign aggression into a permanent dispute, gifting Pakistan a political tool to drain Indian resources for decades.
The Indus Waters Treaty (1960): In an act of total weakness, Nehru signed a deal that gave away roughly 80% of the river water to Pakistan. India sat at the top of the rivers and controlled the water sources, yet Nehru willingly gave away that massive leverage. This lopsided deal legally blocked regular Indian farmers in Punjab, Rajasthan, and Jammu & Kashmir from getting the water and development they desperately needed, all so Nehru could look like a “peace-loving” leader to Western banks.
2) The Indira and Rajiv Eras
The Shimla Surrender (1972): After winning the 1971 war, India held all the cards: absolute military dominance and 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war. Yet, Indira Gandhi completely choked at the negotiating table. She handed all 93,000 prisoners back to Pakistan in exchange for empty verbal promises to keep things peaceful. She turned a historic military victory into a total diplomatic surrender.
The Nuclear Freeze: After conducting India’s first nuclear test in 1974, Indira Gandhi backed down under foreign pressure. She refused to actually build nuclear weapons for decades, leaving India unprotected while Pakistan ran a secret, around-the-clock program to build their own bomb.
The 1988 Nuclear Deal: Rajiv Gandhi continued this policy of holding India back while Pakistan pushed forward. Right after the Indian military showed overwhelming strength during military drills, Rajiv signed a deal with Benazir Bhutto that legally banned India from striking Pakistan’s secret nuclear factories—essentially protecting Pakistan’s bomb-making facilities from our own military.
3.) The UPA Era
The Sharm-El-Sheikh Sellout (2009): The UPA government signed a humiliating joint statement promising that India would keep talking to Pakistan even after major terror attacks. Worse, they allowed Pakistan to officially write “Balochistan” into the document. This gave Pakistan a massive propaganda victory, letting them falsely claim to the world that India was causing internal trouble inside Pakistan.
Biryani Diplomacy: While Pakistan-backed terrorists were actively killing and beheading Indian soldiers on the border, the ruling elite in New Delhi were busy hosting lavish luncheons and “Cricket Diplomacy” matches for visiting Pakistani officials.
Finally, look at how this whole ‘Darbari media’ ecosystem operates. They rely on the exact same intellectual blind spots, over and over again, just to shield these massive historical failures and protect their old elite friends. It’s a convenient little setup that lets these commentators completely dodge holding past leaders accountable for literally giving away the store.
They throw around big words like ‘ancient civilization’ and ‘history’ as if they’re cheap ornaments, just because it’s trendy in today’s political climate. But the truth is, they don’t have the slightest clue what a real civilizational state actually demands. By reducing hard national security and our civilizational identity to a shallow public relations narrative, this traditional media crowd stays completely blind to reality. They just cannot understand why regular Indian voters have rejected that entire post-1947 political framework.
Congress does offer an alternative to BJP. It’s 90% reservation in private jobs for lower castes. He’s the most stupid politician alive.
One area for considerable improvement is defence procurement. Government prerogative, opposition has almost no role to play. 2. During the Kargil conflict, General V P Malik had said, We will fight with what we have. So many years later, Pakistan will be inducting fifth generation aircraft and submarines with Air Independent Propulsion before India does. 3. Defence PSUs. The world’s top foreign manufacturers. A growing cohort of credible private sector firms in India. Between these three entities, the government has to meet the requirements of the three services. A minimum purchase in fly away condition, more licensed manufacture in India, with increasing local content and transfer of technology. 4. Faster phase out of ageing platforms like MiG 21, Jaguars, AN 32, helicopters.
In a better world, a long serving incumbent would have sought to forge an all party consensus on national security and foreign policy. ( When requested, opposition MPs joined, even led, all party delegations to 33 countries after Operation Sindoor ). Two abiding, fused threats from China and Pakistan. 2. Growing isolation in South Asia, with Bangladesh clearly drifting away to China, even warming up to Pakistan. Pakistan, despite its rock solid alliance with China, now receiving exceptional US indulgence. Signed a Mutual Defence Agreement with Saudi Arabia, the natural leader of the Gulf, with a special place in the Islamic world. India’s relations with USA, our large black umbrella for a very windy, rainy night, at a thirty year low. 3. Foreign policy and national security are, of course, the government’s core function, the opposition, notably in the states, is not directly in the picture. Even so, forging a bipartisan consensus would be in the national interest.
What makes the task of the Congress incredibly difficult is that it is not playing on a level field. Each facet of the game.
Massive physical infrastructure, visible to all. What is also visible is very poor quality of construction. This is something the government might wish to reflect upon and rectify.
I keep repeating…Rahul hai toh Modi hai.
Else he won’t be in power. RaGa would thrive in place of Mamdani…not Modi
Have never understood how the Congress could be faulted on Nationalism. Mrs Gandhi sliced Pakistan like a watermelon in 1971. Asked R N Kao, Can you do something about Sikkim. Conducted the first nuclear test in 1974. Held India together, inheriting a traumatised nation in 1947. In 1972, when Time magazine asked Mrs Gandhi what India’s greatest achievement was over the last 25 years, she answered with modesty, I think we have survived as a nation. The party ruled India for half a century. Little of that time was a walk in the park. I am not a Dhurandhar sort of guy, do not equate nationalism with rippling muscles. There is a lot the Congress has done for India, made its share of mistakes, as all governments have. Maybe the Congress needs to communicate better.