The Fall

                           In a powerful and moving dialogue between Karna and Kunti, the latter pleads forgiveness for her act of abandoning him soon after he was born for fear of retribution as an unwed mother and for acceptance of her maternal love henceforth as her eldest son. Karna’s honest reply tinged with sadness states that it will not be possible for him to transfer his love for his foster mother who had given him her unstinted love to Kunti whom he now discovers as his biological mother. He says that just as the fallen fruit of the mango tree cannot be once again glued to the tree, it will be impossible for him to be affixed to her. The gravitational pull that brings down the mango cannot be reversed and this scientific truth holds a mirror to the fall that all of us experience at different periods in our lives.

                         The fall of the Congress is indeed a giant fall. Coming close on the heels of the 50^thdeath anniversary of the first Congress Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, - a giant among statesmen, a philosopher-king,-  the collapse of Congress under the Modi onslaught is pathetic and presently seems irreversible. To imagine that it can be glued once again to the tired and vapid Congress slogans of Garibhi Hatao and Custodianship of Secularism invoke pathos if not derision and ridicule very much like Don Quixote’s tilt at the windmills.

                         This is the 21^st century, a period dominated by the media especially by Cinema and TV and glossy newspapers and newsmagazines. The message is in the medium and it percolates to every nook and corner of the nation. The masses are fed on glamour and style that form the core of all media presentation in the name of entertainment and infotainment. The City is shown as the place to fulfill their romanticized fantasy and desire for a better lifestyle , albeit on a lower rung. This has resulted in the large exodus to the city from the countryside. All the programmes that the Congress had started such as MNREGA and Food Security Bill did provide the rural poor food and some form of employment and wages but the allurement of the city and the dream of living the life seen on the big and small screens could not be satisfied by the appeasement of hunger and offer of physical jobs that were far removed from the reel life.

                           For Congress time has stood still at the Nehruvian age. It continued to live in a time warp, not noticing the aspirations both of the middle class and that of the new young generation. The first Congress government of Pt. Nehru, showed an aspirational India wanting the fruits of freedom. The next Congress government  of Indira continued the Nehruvian socialism to focus on poverty alleviation(Gharibi Hatao) and the Congress of Rajiv Gandhi brought the exhilaration of modernization  that was short-lived. But Dr.ManMohan Singh and his retinue of well educated ministers failed to read the yearning of the new India raised on the glamour of showbiz and mobile technology that found expression through the social media. They were completely out of tune with the masses –not because they were not conversant with the new media, but they failed to note that young India was far more media savvy than all their Oxonian and Cambridgian knowledge had equipped them with. Even when indications were given about the strength social media can create during the Anna Hazare Movement and later the Nirbhaya movement, the Congress ministers sat like ostriches burying their heads in files without raising their fingers to twitter or blog. The bitter truth is social media has come to stay with its pretension to ‘a pastiche of knowledgeability that is really a new model of know-nothingness’(Karl taro Greenfield in the New York Times). Social media promotes fake social and political literacy and it has become a pandemic. The BJP was quick to see the advantage of the flipside of social media and harnessed it to its best advantage with its daily litany of Congress- mukht Bharat where Congress stood both for party and corruption. The Congress ostriches did nothing to counter the attack nor used the social media to showcase all their achievements even if they did not fully measure up to the aspirations of the new generation.
So the mango has fallen and it cannot be brought back to the tree. But Nature has an answer for all its fallen fruits. The mango has the seed that has the capability to germinate and sprout. It needs fresh hands to dig the soil, to water it and make it germinate very quickly. Instead of being tied to the old guard with no new slogans, the Congress has to take fresh guard and learn to reach out to people, understand their need and work out strategies that can meet a major part of their aspirations. It will be foolish and even naïve to keep nit picking all that the present government has set out to achieve or take over the role of destructive opposition earlier indulged by the BJP. It will be prudent to be realistic in making promises to people that is void of all empty rhetoric. Congress has to re-invent itself while continuing with the inclusive development that Nerhu’s socialism had envisioned.

                             It is of utmost importance to educate people. All talk of empowerment of people has no meaning unless people are educated about their duty and about their role in nation building. The old time slogan of public-private partnership is to be re-engineered to people-state partnership that lays emphasis on people’s contribution and cooperation. What has happened to India-as it had happened in Egypt, Libya and Syria, to name a few – is politicians promising people vocal empowerment without providing them mental power and citizenship development. The result has been disastrous as seen in the failure of AAP’s tryst with people’s power. The slogan of the hour should be  ‘Duty first, rights next’ .

         It is unfortunate that in a moment of euphoria that has brought a man of humble origin to the highest position in government, there has come a tendency to disparage intellectuals and educated classes and claim the superiority and wisdom of mass leaders without bookish and academic education. This bodes ill for the future of the nation as the world is galloping along new technological inventions, sociological transformations, new ideologies and psychological changes.  We need a generation of thinkers who can lead the nation to keep pace with an emerging world order. No development is complete without the development of the mind and the spirit.

                       Can Congress reinvent itself? Can the mango seed sprout again? Can Congress commit itself to accept the fall of the mango only to sprout and grow and yield more and richer fruits?  It can if it nurtures young plants and fresh soil without foolishly attempting to fix the fallen fruit to the old tree. The need for Congress to revive and reboot itself is important because it has to be ready to provide people an exhilarating alternative in the years to come when the present euphoria will wane and people’s aspirations seek a new force to prop them up.