In Politics Congress can Stoop to any Low

Unbecoming conduct on PM Modi’s birthday In Politics Congress can Stoop to any Low By Amba Charan Vashishth Politics may be translated as rajniti in Hindi and other Indian languages. But what is in vogue in India is not rajniti but the western form called politics. In play is politics the country inherited from Muslim and British invaders which is the rajniti minus the high ideals and principles core to what rajniti stands for. In India raja-maharajas followed the principles of rajniti. Even when the two rajas came in conflict with each other, women in both principalities were treated with respect and never harmed. It was only after Muslim rule that women came to be humiliated, physically assaulted and killed if they did not submit. On the contrary, the politics that ruled the country during Muslim and British period, the conduct of the State was run on the famous principle that “everything was right in war and politics”. The rajniti was given a go bye. Politicians in India seem to have inherited the politics that was the very heart and soul of the alien rulers. Even after India became independent the politics came into play at the hands of Gandhi-Nehru families and others with niceties and courtesies lost forever. Politicians may have had differences between themselves but they never hit below the belt. Women, daughters and sons of the opponents were always spared. Political differences apart, family members of each remained common and therefore, loveable and respectable. Politics was never allowed to stand in between their social and family relations. They continued to join in marriages and every other family functions. But, of late, political rivalry has come to vitiate these relations. Now if a political rival joins in his opponent’s social relations, this conduct is frowned upon by leadership of each party. Till the other day, it had been a great tradition with political leaders to exchange birthday greetings, even with their political foes. They went to the smadhi sthal to pay their respects even if at daggers drawn with the departed soul. They may not join an auspicious ceremony uninvited but made it a point not to miss the opportunity to pay their condolences to their opponents uninvited. But a new trend, this time, was set in motion, primarily, by the country’s oldest political party, the Indian National Congress (INC), run by the Nehru-Gandhi family trio of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. In one breath, they now greet their political rivals on birthdays and, in the next breath, hurl choicest abuses. Till now, it is confined to the Congress party but, in due course, it will be no surprise if the unhealthy malaise infects other political parties too. On PM Narender Modi’s birthday Congress President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi joined other opposition leaders in greeting him and sending their good wishes. World leaders including US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others too wished PM Modi well. But Congress party could not help hide its bitterness towards the PM on this solemn occasion even. It burst out in the open in the words of its chief party spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala who ended his good wishes with the malice of words: Áb ki baar bander ke haath mein ustra sarkar’. This is not the first time that Congress has made derogatory statements against PM Modi. Congress leader Arjun Modwadia has also compared Modi to a monkey. () To celebrate the occasion in its own style BJP launched from PM’s birthday a weeklong sewa saptah (service week) throughout the country. . Congress has, as a leading national daily put it, descended to a new low in Indian politics. Earlier, politicians used to show decency and avoided attacking leaders on personal occasions such as birthdays. However, Congress breached that barrier and showed utter lack of decency through negative and devious political discourse, by trying to ‘celebrate’ the day as National Unemployment Day and continuing with other vicious and malafide attacks as well. Home / India News / ‘Wish you would advise trolls who threaten in your name’: Surjewala on PM Modi’s tweet Whether it is the birth or death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, Shmt. Indira Gandhi, Sardar Ballabhbhai Patel and others, in spite of the fact that some political parties and leaders have reservations about these leaders, they still celebrate the occasion solemnly with a great sense of unanimity recalling their great qualities of head and heart. It is for the first time that politics has stooped to such a low level. The Congress should have made a choice between greeting PM Modi on his birthday or condemning him for his ‘failures’. Its conduct amounts to standing true to the old saying: bagal mein chhuri munh par raam-raam (shouting Ram-Ram aloud with a dagger concealed in the armpit). The Congress celebrated this day as Unemployment Day. Nobody can deny this right to Congress but the day and timing is obnoxious. This curse is perennial. It was there when the British left and it continued after that too. Out of the 73 years of India’s freedom, for more than 50 years Congress had been in power. Never during this period did unemployment become extinct. On the contrary, successive Congress governments had been calling the unemployment, poverty and corruption as the global problem. In 1971 general elections the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi raised the “gharibi hatao” slogan that caught the imagination of the electorate. She won a landslide victory. In 1984, Congress led by Rajiv Gandhi promised to provide “a government that works’. Congress in another election promised to do away with unemployment. Successive Congress governments failed to live up to their promises made to the electorate. Gharibi still is not a thing of the past. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections when Congress-led UPA was defeated at the hustings and BJP-led NDA government came into power, UPA government did not have a zero percent unemployment rate. The latest percentage of unemployment in Canada is 7.5, in France 8.1, China 5.9, Italy 7.8 and in India 8.5. Unemployment Rate in the United States averaged 5.76 percent from 1948 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 14.70 percent in April of 2020 and a record low of 2.50 percent in May of 1953. It must also be kept in mind that as a result of Covid-19 pandemic the situation all over the world has worsened because of closure of many large, medium and small, even cottage, industrial and commercial units. This is a situation in which the priority of governments all over the world at present, is to contain the spread of Corona pandemic, treatment of those infected and reduce the number of casualties as much as it is keep the economy moving. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has praised India’s efforts in containing the deadly corona virus. It said that PM Modi is himself monitoring the situation and the government made sure that there were equipment and supplies to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. India has supplied anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which is believed to be helpful in control of the covid-19 pandemic, to more than 55 corona virus-hit countries as grants as well as on commercial basis. All the beneficiary countries have praised India for this timely humanitarian help at this time of need. () Had the Modi government not risen to the occasion in time and taken concrete preventive steps like lockdown followed by unleashing the unlock process in various phases, India with about 70% of its 135 crore population living in rural areas, India would have topped the world in corona infected cases, recovery and casualty figures. But the deliberately closed eyes of the opposition do not open up to the blaze of these stark realities. When Modi government enforced the lock-down to meet the challenge of the Covid-19, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi hit it with a borrowed intelligence quoting legendary physicist Albert Einstein, “The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance.” How relevant is this quote relevant to the corona pandemic is anybody’s guess When government launched the unlock process, Rahulji was again not impressed. His policy seems to be to criticize the government in every situation — Lockdown was wrong and unlock process too. Strange logic, Rahul style! That is the Congress politics going down day by day. ***