'Secular'
Congress subservient to Muslim fundamentalism
By
Amba Charan Vashishth
As the election to Parliament draws near, the tone
and tenor of election speeches is getting dirtier. The speakers may find it
delectable but it certainly is detestable to the common man, the voter. The
contestants may lose their cool but the voter remains cool in his head.
One of the reasons for the contestants getting
lousy and abusive is because of the electoral atmosphere in the country and in
their own constituencies. It is also said that when a person turns bankrupt of
arguments and logic, he comes to blows. That exactly looks true in the present electoral
situation.
During the last UP assembly elections, the
environment looked almost the same as it is present. It was the Congress
leaders who were in vociferous defiance of the Election Commission (EC). And
who gained? At least not those who were the most vocal.
Union Minister Salman Khurshid who was in his
defiance best while campaigning for his wife could not escape the ignominy of
her being pushed to the fifth position by the electorate. His equally
recalcitrant colleague in Manmohan cabinet Beni Persad Verma had no better
luck.
More than a decade back, the elections were marred
by an orgy of violence. The EC succeeded, to a great measure, in curbing the
violence during electioneering and on the polling day. But now it looks the
physical violence has been overtaken by the violence of the tongue.
In the past such instances were only few and far
between. But now it looks it is the order of the day and elections. Sometimes it was slip of the tongue. But now
it has now assumed the proportion of being a desperately deliberate act.
This time the situation has been uglier and more
indecent than ever before, even coming within the ambit of violation of
criminal and election law.
It first started with the old hand in this dubious
game, the External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid calling Modi as Napunsak
(impotent). Congress Vice-President Rahul
Gandhi deprecated it saying: “I do not appreciate this kind of comment... the kind of
language.” Then came the news of
Khurshid venting the ire against the EC and the Supreme Court on the foreign
soil of London — a case of a minister who has taken oath to "bear true
faith and allegiance to the Constitution". He violates his oath and yet
remains a minister under the Constitution.
In this war of attrition and abuse jumps the Congress
candidate from Saharanpur (UP) parliamentary constituency, Mr. Imran Masood who
was caught on camera saying: "If
Modi tries to make Uttar Pradesh into Gujarat, then we will chop him into tiny
pieces... I am not scared of getting killed or attacking someone. I will fight
against Modi. He thinks UP is Gujarat. Only 4% Muslims are there in Gujarat
while there are 42% Muslims in UP."
Later, he refused to tender an apology. A case was
registered against him and he was remanded to 14 days' judicial custody. After
two days he was granted bail.
Although the Congress said it did not approve such
language yet the next day it jumped into his defence saying that the CD was one
year old when Masood was in Samajwadi Party (SP). But the media which recorded
the speech says it was very much recent while campaigning in his constituency. Let
us take for a moment that the speech was made a year back when Masood was in
SP. Does that absolve him of the crime he committed? And does his crime in SP
turn into an act of piety because he has now joined Congress?
It is interesting to contrast the stand of the
Congress and other parties as also the EC on the so-called "hate
speech" Mr. Varun Gandhi is alleged to have given. (He has since been
acquitted of the charge.) Note that on the day he spoke, the EC had not
announced the election schedule for 2009 Lok Sabha elections and the Model Code
of Conduct (MCoC) had not yet come into force. Mr. Gandhi had to remain in jail
for two-three months. Further, EC immediately took cognizance of the speech and
two days before the announcement of the schedule, advised — an unusual and
unprecedented action — the BJP not to put up Mr. Varun as its candidate from
Pilibhit. BJP did not accede because EC was overstepping its steps. But,
surprisingly, this time EC remains unmoved by the Mr. Masood's crime.
Further, the political parties, including
Congress, which wanted Mr. Varun Gandhi to be deprived of his right to contest
the election for that "hate speech" are silent. Congress, so far, has
not been able to dare to withdraw Mr. Masood's candidature obviously for fear
of losing Muslim community votes. That lays utterly bare the precept and
practice of 'secularism' by Congress. Congress need to explain whether Mr.
Masood's speech smacked of secularism?
Again, Mr. Nahid Hasan SP candidate from Kairana was on March
30 quoted as telling SP workers: “Mayawati sat in the
lap of Modi thrice, both are unmarried.” The police registered a case against him.
The condemnation of such ugly voices by political
parties is just a ploy. Had they honestly been against and condemned their act,
they would have acted swiftly and cut their umbilical chord with such ignoble
sons of which they felt ashamed to be their mother. But it is like haathi ke
daant khaane ke aur, dikhaane ke aur. They wish to have the cake and eat it too.
They continue to wish to thrive on the illicit earnings of electoral bounty by
such acts of brave braying. But people are not fools. They are much wiser than
politicians. The latter must not ignore this fact. ***
Published in the Weekly ORGANISER in its April 13, 2014 issue.
