Uttar Pradesh | डीडीच्या दुनियेत

When Defence Minister of India Nirmala Seetharaman spiritedly defended the government in Lok Sabha last week, Congress president Rahul Gandhi was at the forefront to deride her arguments. Seetharaman came clear with all facts regarding the Rafale deal and exposed all the canards spread by opposition, especially Congress. Rather than counter her arguments with equally forceful facts, the Congress President chose a very misogynist remark while targeting the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. “He is hiding behind a woman,” was the statement he made.
The irony came to haunt Gandhi and the Congress Party as Rahul’s sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra formally entered politics on Wednesday. Immediately after her entry, Priyanka was appointed general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East. The liberal intelligentsia (!) hailed the move saying that it was the Brahmastra for the Congress Party. They saw in it the party’s intent to go full throttle in the state ahead of the general elections.
Little did they realize that it was a formal acknowledgement of Rahul Gandhi’s failure as a leader. It showed that Congress relied heavily on sympathy and emotional issues rather than hard facts of development. Congress workers do not tire of singing paeans to Priyanka charishma and try to make others feel that she exudes Indira Gandhi’s persona. Clearly, the party wants to project her as a woman leader in a bid to attract voters and want others to see in her what a true-blood Congressman would see. It will surely boost the morale of party workers in the state but to expect any far reaching effect of this move will be an exaggeration.
Rahul Gandhi fast The question here is – If it takes Priyanka Gandhi to arrive to enthuse Congress workers, what is Rahul Gandhi there for? What is he doing there as party president?
With Priyanka’s entry, years of speculation have come to an end. The euphoria is reminiscent of Sonia Gandhi entering in politics at the fag end of 1997. But it must be noted here that even Sonia Gandhi was not successful in her first attempt. She had to spend seven years in opposition before leading her party to power with the help of a cobbled up alliance.
It was also in line with the tradition of Congress Party that Priyanka was given new assignment in the politically crucial state without doing actual party work on ground, for howsoever little period of time. Her only credential in politics till now was managing the campaign of her brother – more as a family duty rather than commitment towards ideology. Even though Priyanka was earlier actively involved in making key decisiona in the party along with her mother and brother, it was mostly behind-the-curtain affair. Her most recent visible role was in the selection of new chief ministers for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Even then, she neither faced media nor interacted with party workers. It was just a darbari affair.
Most importantly, Priyanka is ridden with a load in the form of her husband Robert Vadra, who is embroiled in several controversies and scams including land purchase scams in Haryana and Rajasthan and is facing probes by the Enforcement Directorate. To get past those blots will not be as easy as Congressmen wish.
One cannot but laugh head goes to see a masterstroke in this move. The same section was Jubilant in 2009 when Congress managed an appreciable performance in UP election. The Congress had then won 21 seats in the state in the 2009 general election. They attributed this tally to the ‘able leadership’ of Rahul Gandhi and saw in him new savior of party. And now they see next messiah in Priyanka as Rahul could not deliver after many attempts since then.
UP was a Congress bastion till the mid 1980s. Ever since then, it has lost ground in the state to BJP, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Most of this destruction took place under the nose of Rahul Gandhi but he sailed through thanks to dynastic mindset of Congress. To revive the party from such a sunken state is a herculean task, but never mind, none will held her responsible even if she fails to achieve her goal. After all she has a blessed lineage!

The attempts by some of the opposition parties to cobble up a grand alliance to fight Bharatiya Janata Party are in full swing. This illusionary preposition swings up every five years or so in the name of fighting communalism and fascism. Earlier they levelled the same charge on Congress and fought shoulder to shoulder with BJP, but when the BJP gathered enough mass and marched ahead on its own, they changed the tone.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was right when he said that that the opposition ‘mahagathbandhan’ or grand alliance was a club of ‘nawabs of negativity’ and the only ‘glue’ of this diverse grouping is its opposition to one man Narendra Modi. They are so driven by their hate towards Modi that they can set aside all their differences and ideologies to form a hastily sewn alliance.
However, the situation has changed a lot since such Fronts came up on political scene in India about 30 years ago. At that time, the people wanted change at any cost and that meant voting in favor of an melange of a smaller parties without a strong and nationwide leadership.
The people today belong to an aspirational society which is politically conscious. It will never buy into this suicidal alternative. This ragbag may come into existence propelled by the egos of the individual parties (no pun intended) but they cannot take the nation where it rightfully belongs in the 21st century. All the players performing in this political circus carry zero credibility; in many places, they are liability than assets. Look at Telugu Desam Party which was battered in the recently concluded Assembly elections in Telangana in spite of forming a front with Congress and Left.
Just last week, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party entered an alliance for Lok Sabah Poll 2019. They announced that they would fight coming lok Sabha election jointly on seat sharing of 38 each in Uttar Pradesh. And what did they have to say about Congress, which was an ally of SP in UP Assembly election in 2017?
Addressing a joint press conference with Akhilesh Yadav at Lucknow, Mayawati said that Congress is not part of alliance as it is not beneficial in seat winning contrary it creates loss. She said that she is keeping away Lucknow’s Guest House incident away in interest of People and country. She said this alliance will continue for a long in future.
Interestingly, one can use the phrase ‘forging an alliance’ in all sense to describe these parties. This proposed ‘mahagathbandhan’ has neither the ideological cohesiveness nor a common program. They lack leadership and nor any of them has unblemished record. It does not aim at building the country but focuses on maintaining the imaginary halo of their respective leaders. Those who can’t even see each other are now joining hands out of the fear for their own survival. More than anything else, their ego will eat each other even if they manage to come closer.