For some time, the Congress is severely afflicted with Modi phobia. Under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, Modi was virtually a persona non grata and no occasion was missed to insult him, though he was a democratically elected Chief Minister of Gujarat. During Chief Ministers’ Conferences in New Delhi, he was treated like a ‘step-brother’. Now even after facing humiliating defeat by Modi, the Congress could not able to change its attitude towards him, despite the fact that he enjoys mandate and is now Prime Minister. In the recently concluded Parliament session, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, while staging a drama entered into the well of the House alleging that they were not allowed to speak and only the voice of one person (Modi) is being heard. But when the House debated communal violence issue, he (Rahul) kept mum.
Now the Congress has advised all its CMs to boycott PM Modi and not to share dais with him in any public event. The plea for this boycott is that Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda was not allowed to speak at a public function, organised by Highway Authority of India (HAI) in Kaithal by the people of his own state. Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan also met the same fate during a public function in Solapur. Later, he did not attend the bhoomipujan of Metro Rail Project in Nagpur at the instance of Congress high command.
Congress alleges that it was BJP orchestrated show stage managed by Modi. However it has no evidence to show such 'engineering'. In Kaithal, the PM even requested the crowd to show patience, but the crowd was in no mood to pay heed and continued to interrupt the CM during his speech. Reacting on Congress dictate, BJP reminded the Congress CMs not to breach constitutional propriety and desist from playing politics. The party termed the decision of CM Chavan and others to boycott PMs’ functions as ‘unfortunate’.
Few months back, an unemployed youth slapped CM Hooda in Panipat. Who was responsible for that? Was Modi responsible for it also?
In Haryana, many Congress leaders complained against Hooda’s style of working. The CM is acting like a dictator and he publicly says till he has the blessings of Soniaji no one can harm him. That is why Hooda is intolerant to his own party leaders. Under his leadership, the Congress has confined to only one district.
The reason of anger against Hooda is that in 2004, when he became CM, he showed so many dreams to the public but he could not able to fulfill even a single, whether it is to built Sonipat as education hub through Rajiv Gandhi Education City or an International Fruit and Vegetable Market at Gannaur (Sonipat).
Even, at the function of celebrating 150th anniversary of 1857—First War of Independence, he announced to build a Grand Memorial of the First Freedom Movement at Ambala, because the first call for the revolution was raised from Ambala Cantonment. This Memorial is still on papers. In Haryana, the people’s perception for the CM is that he only flourished the real estate business during his regime. The same story is with Maharashtra. Many senior Congress leaders are not at ease with the CM Chavan. Even its alley NCP is unhappy with him and people anger is at its peak.
If a CM is unable to fulfill the expectations of people then no one can stop them to display their anger. In Assam, CM Tarun Gogoi has no control over the Government, administration and the party. Now, his fight with the cabinet colleagues is in open.
In Jammu & Kashmir, Congress Minister Sham Lal Sharma openly questioned the policies of the congress high command saying why there should not be a Hindu CM in J&K when Maharashtra and Bihar can had a Muslim CM? But Congress high command has no answer!
Now it is time for Congress to learn something from its own people instead of blaming others for its failures.
-Dr Ravindra Agrawal (The writer is a senior Journalist)
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