Aditya Pradhan
IS the concerted effort by the Congress party to brand BJP and RSS as terrorist organisations being too clever by half? The accusations did not just stop at calling the main Opposition party and RSS terrorists. Union Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde even alleged that the political and cultural organisations which are identified at worst as ‘hyper nationalists’, run terror camps!
Unbelievable as it may sound, it only reveals the desperation creeping in in the run up to the general elections in 2014. And by the look of it this seems to be just the beginning. Congress monarchy’s shift of power to Rahul Gandhi at the Chintan Shivir in Jaipur has made it clear that the Gandhi scion will have to prove his mettle. The desperation also emanates from the fact that Rahul Gandhi’s charm has miserably failed in all the state elections held in the near past.
Although the latest salvo fired by the dirty tricks department of the Congress party has the signature of Digvijaya Singh all over it, it is becoming increasingly clear that polarisation of votes will be the best ploy of the Congress party in the next elections. When Union Finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram admitted that Congress is unlikely to get even a decisive majority in 2014 elections, the battle lines were drawn at the Congress Chintan Shivir.
The saffron terror allegations were made repeatedly by the Union ministers to elicit maximum political advantage and set the ground rules for the next general elections in 2014. On the one hand, winning the next elections is crucial for the Congress as it has been caught in multi-billion dollar scandals in almost all the major ministries. Staying in power and controlling CBI is paramount for the Congress if it has to escape the rigours of law. But the saffron terror accusations on BJP-RSS might have elicited a collective exasperation from around the country and among all communities so much so that news media has been unanimous in condemning Union Home minister’s statements. Even Congress supporters in the media are struggling to make the Sushilkumar Shinde’s statements sound credible.
India is not Iran or Pakistan that the media cannot report on terror camps run by anyone in the country. But the danger in such statements coming from Union ministers is that countries and organisations adversarial to India will quote Sushilkumar Shinde in international forums to legitimise their claims that India can be equated with Pakistan for state support of terrorism. In the past it has been seen quite often that major international think-tanks depend on such quotable quotes to bolster their case against India.
The Congress strategy in all this, if there was one, is too petty for anyone to see through it. First, a Dalit Union minister makes the ludicrous statement, then when contested with nation-wide protests by the main Opposition party is termed anti-Dalit by the government. Second, follows a reaffirmation of the original statement of the Home minister by a Muslim Union minister, so as to play to the minority gallery. It may be too petty that for some brownie points the incumbent Union ministers make such statements but it also reveals how important it is save the prime accused in the large scale loot of various ministries in the next general elections.
The deafening silence of the Congress over Owaisi’s statements in Hyderabad now seems to add method to the madness. Social networking sites on the internet have been abuzz with comments against the UPA government and there are very few supporters of the Congress among the millions of young Indians as was made clear to Rahul Gandhi after his speech at the Chintan Shivir. A popular internet news analysis site even sought to know from the Union Home minister why he has not banned the main Opposition party if he had information of BJP running terror camps.
There is also a pattern of one-upmanship emerging after the formal announcement of Rahul Gandhi taking over as vice president of Congress party. From now, one can expect even more ridiculous statements being made by Union ministers to curry favour with the new vice president of the Congress party who is desperate to prove that he can win elections.
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