There have been two views among opposition parties on how they should respond to the ongoing protests against the National Population Register, the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or the NPR-NRC-CAA.
One view is that they should take the bull by the horns. Ignoring it would be suicide. The NPR-NRC-CAA trio has the potential to disenfranchise many Muslims and reduce opposition votes. So, it affects opposition parties most directly in the long run.
The other view is that NPR-NRC-CAA is yet another Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ploy to polarise voters along Hindu-Muslim lines. Proponents of this view believe that opposition parties should let students and Muslim groups fight the CAA fight. The opposition itself must concentrate on economic and development issues to take on the Narendra Modi government.
Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala and Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal have taken the first view. Hemant Soren in his election campaign in Jharkhand and now Arvind Kejriwal in his Delhi election campaign, have both taken the second view.
There are pros and cons to both these approaches. But the point is, one must take a decisive approach and push it in a big way. The most important strategy is to have a strategy.
Also read: Naukri is the new mehngai but the opposition just doesn’t get it
Neither here nor there
The Congress party seems to have both views within it, as any party would. But it is not clear which view it wants to take. Almost a month after the CAA was passed in Parliament, the Congress is not the face of the opposition to the law.
If the Congress party was taking the other view, of cornering the government on economic and development issues, then it should have used the moment to launch a strong campaign in that direction. By launching a solution-driven campaign, such as one asking for a minimum basic income for India’s poor, the Congress would have been able to show it is a party that talks solutions — while the BJP is creating problems.
Once you are able to put the BJP and the Modi government on the mat on economic and development issues, then the BJP’s Hindutva moves like NPR-NRC-CAA will appear to be coming not from strength but from desperation. That is why the second strategy can be wildly successful, especially on the polling booth. Hemant Soren just showed us as much, and Arvind Kejriwal is perhaps about to demonstrate it as well.
Yet the Congress has taken neither of these approaches fully. It talks about how the poor will be the worst hit by NRC, makes token visits to those affected by police brutality in CAA protests. The Congress organises its own protests but even Asaduddin Owaisi’s protest in Hyderabad gets more attention. The Congress says it opposes NRC but its five chief ministers are too afraid to say their states will suspend NPR work, or pass a resolution in the state assembly against the CAA as Kerala has done.
Also read: This is how many foreign trips Rahul Gandhi makes every month — and misses all the action
Leadership crisis
The neither-here-nor-there problem of the Congress party is what gives the impression it is doing nothing, even as it may be doing something or the other every day.
The lack of clarity in the party’s approach is a direct result of its leadership crisis at the top. Between the so-called old guard and new guard, the party remains a slow and inchoate decision-making machinery. Since there is no all-powerful leader at the top to make a final decision, the Congress looks like it’s trying to do everything, and, as a result, doing nothing at all.
The popular perception is that there are two camps in the party but there may well be three. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi are three different individuals with their own coteries around them. And they may have different ideas of politics, different objectives to achieve.
Sonia Gandhi’s objective is to establish Rahul Gandhi’s career. Rahul Gandhi’s objective is to establish he’s not the wrong one but the wronged one, the sinner being the “old guard”.
Priyanka Gandhi’s objective is also to help establish Rahul Gandhi’s career and to revive the Congress in Uttar Pradesh at the same time. Trying to save the Congress, save her brother, play the game in UP, manage the differences between old and new guard — she’s trying to do everything and will end up doing nothing.
That is why her political interventions are episodic and not a sustained campaign with a defined end goal. Even in Uttar Pradesh.
In other words, it is no one’s objective in the Congress party to try and get the better of Narendra Modi. They’re trying to defeat each other and not the BJP.
If instead of three people, the Congress was being run by only one of them — any one, even Rahul Gandhi — it would be a much stronger party.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi may be her role model in life, but Priyanka emulates Digvijaya Singh’s politics
Abdication of responsibility
In the first week of the protests, Rahul Gandhi was in Seoul. As a result, the Congress did not do any big protest, completely losing the opportunity. Priyanka Gandhi’s India Gate appearance was a flop show with no crowds mobilised.
They waited for Rahul Gandhi to return to do an event for which the Delhi Police denied permission. So, they happily didn’t try to defy the police and court arrest like other protesters were doing. They took a little trip to UP and were sent back by the UP Police. Instead of sitting on a dharna for their democratic rights to travel and protest, they happily returned. They had the Christmas party to attend to the next day.
What we get in the end — be it in Raj Ghat or in Congress-ruled state capitals — looks like lip service. No one can say the Congress didn’t protest, but did its protests make any difference to the political landscape? No.
No one can say the Congress didn’t try to steer it away from looking like a Hindu-Muslim issue. But did it succeed? No, it is the protesters who used the Indian flag and the Constitution to do that.
Unable to resolve its own leadership crisis, the Congress party is failing to stand up even for its own voters before an increasingly authoritarian government. When the history of these times is written, this abdication of responsibility by India’s main opposition party will be noted.
Views are personal.
Those three large cutouts in a genuine democracy of 1.3 billion citizens show and summarise all that is wrong with the Congress. If the incumbent loses the next election
Thanks for finally writing about >The Congress strategy
on NPR-NRC-CAA has been neither here nor there <Loved it!
Admiring the commitment you put into your blog and detailed information you
provide. It’s good to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t
the same old rehashed information. Excellent read! I’ve saved your site and I’m adding your RSS feeds to my Google account.
Narative (Link: https://www.rekhta.org/nazms/va-yabqaa-vajh-o-rabbik-hum-dekhenge-ham-dekhenge-faiz-ahmad-faiz-nazms) of poet Faiz could be understood from the English translation (link: https://lyricsraag.com/hum-dekhenge-meaning-faiz-ahmad-faiz/)! Today’s student of urban/ rural who studied at prime National institute would love and like the revolutionary tone of Poet’s ink as a support to fight against the Non-Constitutionalism; Non-Constitutional governance; Non-Constitutional Judiciary; Non-Constitutional media, ambit of our pious book of Constitution, which are failed in most vibrant democracy, since 1992; 2002; 2014; 2019, draconian amendments violating the basic human rights of equality enshrined! Students; researchers of supporting lead to all vulnerable community (Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe/ marginalized community) would add to his/ her personal vocabulary, in respect thereto!
L.K.Advani said ,in 2014 , a lamppost could have won .I think, a lamppost is better than the present leadership of Congress. So wait for the circumstances conducive for a lamppost & hope raga abdicates in its favor.
RaGa has abdicated, isn’t it? He resigned his post of the president of congress, and is now an ordinary member of the party. As to the lamppost, it won 3 states from mighty BJP, Rajasthan, MP, and Chhattisgarh, in spite of Modi’s numerous rallies!
Unlike what Vij believes, Congress is a smart party. It is not sure what will be the end result of this agitation. It is entirely possible that people will understand the logic of CAA being not pro muslim but definitely not anti muslim! ( And hence, has nothing to do with muslims so why bother about it!). And NRC process could be entirely different like amnesty for illegal migrants and then just file a simple affadavit cum declaration so that there is no need for documentation at all. So Congress is showing a token opposition to it but it is also readying up to better gaushala etc. in Congress ruled states and pander to soft Hindutva too! As and when BJP is ousted, Congress will fill in the vaccum, as and when it comes.
The behavior and actions of congress are like the defeated and retreating armies of the past centuries. The defeated and retreating armies would burn the fields full of grains, burn the cities they lostand do as much destruction to public and private properties as possible as they were sure that they are not going to return as ruler again at any time in future. So fully aware of their future in coming parliamentary election in next five years and decades , they are out to do same thing by inciting their ignorant camp followers. 2021 -2024 may see more violence by congress inspired agitators.
Congress was India before independence, Congress is Gandhi after independence.
Congress could be India only if Gandhi family thrown out of the party….
Sycophant party member, media person, column writer are to blame for its downgrade.
To win next election congress should introduce/prepare new leader
What can Congress do without a tail or head? It has neither a smart, capable and principled leadership, depending only on the corrupt relics of the dynasty and irrelevant hangers on, nor a diciplined membership.
The other opposition parties are either entirely under regional satraps and/or even more corrupt; they are only able to cobble together gangs of convenience!
so we have to be governed by gangs of pure thugs?
What can Congress do without a tail or head? It can defeat BJP! Didn’t it defeat th BJP in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and MP? It also kept the BJP out of power, and is going to do the same in Delhi election in February!
NPR as samgara kutumba survey 2014 was already implemented in Telanagana
some valid points underpinned by a lot of hate for rahul. why? mr. vij, you are usually a sane voice agaist the excesses of the got. why not concentrate that effort? why dilute it in regular attacks on the gandhis? they are has-beens. bashing them brings nothing. it helps neither the congress not any one else. No one can say that Vij didn’t try to steer attention away from modi-shah’s mis-deeds. But did it succeed? No, it is the protesters who are relentlessly pushing forward.
Those three large cut outs in a genuine democracy of 1.3 billion citizens show and summarise all that is wrong with the Congress. If the incumbent loses the next election, it will be despite the Congress, not because of it.