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, is an attempt to bring together opposition parties against the BJP government for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
I won’t say I can read God’s mind, because I can’t. Haha. But I’m reminded of an old and time-tested proverb : vinaash kaale, vipreet budhhi. This proverb essentially says that His ways of working are devious. Something tells me that the endgame has begun for these two Gujarati gentlemen.
Outside of Kashmir, plot the number of incidents of terrorism that have occurred in India in the last ten or even fifteen years. How many lives have been lost. A problem – a global phenomenon, as Mrs Gandhi would have said – but by no means existential. Or the bare bones possibility of full fledged war with either Pakistan or China. So why should this be an issue at all, much less the defining one, for the general election. 2. A more thoughtful way of approaching national security would be to debate the state of every single bilateral relationship in the neighbourhood. Why even pro forma, photo op, largely ceremonial summits of SAARC are not taking place. Not being at the conference table for the endgame in Afghanistan.