Congress or the Indian National Congress (INC) is one of two major political parties in India. It was founded in 1885 and played a leading role in India’s Independence movement. It has ruled during most of India’s independent years and gave the country its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Leadership of the Congress too has been dominated by the Nehru-Gandhi family.
The Congress is a center-left party, and lists on its website democracy, nationalism, secularism, inclusive growth and social justice as its core values. It last ruled India between 2004 and 2014, but has since lost its sway, being reduced to just 52 seats in the 2019 General Elections. INDIA, the alliance headed by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, was an attempt to bring together opposition parties against the BJP government for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Together, the INDIA Alliance secured 238 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha. The Congress won 99 of these.
From the tone of Shri Chari’s articles in The Print over the year or so, it seems that he is headed the way of Shri Yashwant Sinha and Shri Arun Shourie.
May be he should have changed surname Gandhi would have been a better alternative…
the only silver lining i that BJP now has one more non-RSS face.
Chari writes – 1. “The only seat the Congress won was that of Sonia Gandhi in Raebareli, obviously due to her own merit and to some extent, her daughter’s charisma of ‘resembling her grandmother’.” One would think that if at all, the reasons for Sonia’s win should have been rather in the reverse order!
2. “This would be seen as an adverse remark on the performance of the current lot of ministers under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, most of whom have been with the BJP for more than three decades.” While the time lines may be true, it does not mean that it gives someone a right to be a minister unless one is really capable and that outside, young talent cannot come in. Jyotiraditya may not be a big deal politically, but he would certainly do well as a minister and would add to the efficiency of the Cabinet. If anything, Modi is seriously constrained by lack of quality ministers in his cabinet. Jay Panda, Jyotirditya etc would be a good addition to the Council of Ministers.
Otherwise, a good article to read.
seems chari ji has been sidelined. He should understand that people make fun of disgruntled leaders. Chari Ji has been a loyal soldier, hope he doesnt go arun shourie’s way…
Scindia is being put under house arrest in Rajya Sabha and with this his PA who won the LS seat defeating his boss would slowly erode his base and its suits well for BJP. Even if gets the Ministry as part Rangpamchmi, BJP would make sure that he is unpopularised. Already his aunt in Rajasthan is marginalised, in all probability he would join her. Chariji is right BJP is ignoring loyal original Sangh members at cost of imports.
This is ridiculous.
For the BJP, it will be rather uncomfortable to absorb the fact that Scindia could add value to the current cabinet and bring in fresh ideas. This would be seen as an adverse remark on the performance of the current lot of ministers under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, most of whom have been with the BJP for more than three decades.
This is obvious and why should it not be so? There is no one in the party to rebel against Modi or Shah.
Another issue that the party will have to foresee is the possible restlessness among party loyalists and ideological torchbearers who could feel ‘ignored’. While many of them would prefer to keep their reservations under wraps, the BJP’s central leadership would do well to employ political semiosis to understand and rectify any grievances arising out of the lateral entry of non-cadre popular ‘outsiders’.
Both Modi and Shah are adept at calculating the gains. What has happened in Maharashtra is evidence of this