The
Empty Asafetida Jar
Among the many uses of asafetida
(‘hing’ as it is known in Hindi) is its use as a seasoning in Indian cuisine.
The Tamils not only use this ingredient with a strong flavour in a variety of
their dishes but because of their love
for Tamil language known for its proverbs and phrases, use asafetida as an idiom to refer to the mild and vague retention of smell in
an asafetida jar long after it
had been emptied of its pungent content. In other words, the reference is to
the “once upon a time” quality of distinction that remains dull and shadowy
when that distinction is lost and gone. The present day Congress party can be
likened to the empty asafetida container, weakly holding to its one-time glory
that is noticeable by its present absence. Even though Prime minister Modi had
spearheaded the campaign for a Congress-mukht Bharat,(Congress- free India) and
is often credited with the near
fruition of his goal, the truth is the
fall of Congress is its own making-what is referred to in idiomatic Hindi as apne
pair pe kulhadi marna(to
drop an axe on one’s own feet). On hindsight, one can say that Modi saw the
slow and steady decline of the Congress and seized the opportunity to herald
his campaign and to be hailed as the champion of liberating the nation from the
vice-like grip of Congress. Modi has, in his inimitable style followed his
penchant for turning out the Congress-Mukht phrase that Janus-like(the Roman
god with two faces looking in opposite
directions) presents both part truth and
part falsehood. The part truth is Congress is in extremis and is gasping for
breath. It suffers from an illness that is self inflicted; the part falsehood
is Modi seeks to take for the decimation of the Congress. Let us not accuse the
PM of homicide as the Congress is on its own suicidal path.
In
school while learning the use of the auxiliary verbs –will and shall, the
distinction was given by the example: “I will drown; no one shall save
me.” Congress is practising the use of
these two auxiliary verbs as it willingly prefers to drown into the sea of
oblivion refusing to be saved. Otherwise how can one explain the reduction of this
grand old party to almost a cipher- a party that had successfully fought and won freedom for the nation, that
had seen great men of wisdom, erudition and integrity like Pt. Nehru, Rajaji,
Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Ambedkar etc, that had ushered in the Green
revolution, the White revolution, the IT
revolution and the path-breaking Economic liberalization during its long
innings spanning nearly six decades , that had reduced the poverty index from
37.2 % in 2004 to 21.9 % in 2012, that
had staved off famine in India( the last famine was the Bengal famine in 1943)even
when monsoon played truant, that had nurtured and given stability to democracy,
that had set up world class IITs and IIMs and IISC whose graduates compete with the best
in the world, that had set up quality medical colleges and institutes which
have made India the hub of medical
tourism, that had introduced pioneering schemes like the Aadhar and MNREGA,
that had prepared the GST bill (which could not be effected during its
tenure) -just to highlight a few of its
major achievements.
What
has gone wrong with the Congress in recent times? The first and foremost is it
is stricken with Soniad(d)iction and Rahulitis to such a degree that it
refuses any form of rehabilitation to shake off the twin maladies. The Cow and
calf symbol that worked with Indira Gandhi cannot now conjure up a similar
magic through Sonia and Rahul because the mother is of Italian gene and the son
is accused of a un-Indian gene that has little knowledge of the Indian
political jugaad. Rahul, like Don Quixote who was devoted to Dulcinea
del Toboso( who does not requite his
love), is thrusting his leadership
on India which does not need him at all.
He is surrounded by Sancho Panzas, loyal and faithful but without Sancho’s
earthy wit and wisdom. This modern Don
Quixote is living in a world of impractical idealism to right the wrongs of the
woefully disadvantaged classes. He thinks of himself as the destined leader to
uphold the great Gandhi-Nehru dynasty. No one understands him and he
understands no one. He is naïve and vainly keeps flailing against the windmills
of Modi and BJP. If Congress has to be revived, the Sanchos of the party should
shed off the mother-son pair and look for a fresh set of leaders who combine
pragmatism with idealism, who know the art of politics and have the ability to
understand the interrelationships between political and economic processes and
who are in the past forward mode, combining values inherited from the past with
a rational and scientific adaptation to meet the requirements of the modern
times. Are there leaders with such qualities in the Congress? Yes, there are
many but the party has to get rid of the pathological infirmity it suffers
from.
The
second cause for the collapse of the Congress is that it is perceived to be a
party steeped in corruption .It is true there were a few black sheep in the
party that brought disrepute to it, but which party is free of such black
sheep. Just as a drop of poison in a container of milk is enough to contaminate
it, the whole party has suffered due to the actions of these few people. The
opposition’s jibe that the Congress is a wholesale corrupt party recalls the Lamb
and the Wolf story where the wolf accuses the lamb that if he had not muddied
the water in the stream, his father, his grand father, his great grand father…
would have done so. Congress despite Dr.Manmohan
Singh, the Mr.Clean Prime Minister could not counter the unjustnesss of such
sweeping charges.
The
third is the party’s inability to be articulate and handle the social media
which has become a lethal weapon to destroy the reputation of anyone and
everyone. It is indeed a pity that today social media has gained devastating
powers to implicate anyone it chooses to attack with impunity. Congress leaders
have remained at the old fossilized level trying to gather crowds (often with
monetary inducements)and talk to them from a high raised platform, creating a
unbridgeable distance between them, rather than meeting them on a horizontal
level to give them a sense of belonging
and a feeling of participation. Congress has bee naive not to realize that monologues in these
days of social media are meaningless and has failed to acquire the potential to
engage in the dialogic mode.
Fourthly there is a lack of inner party
democracy. This hinders free exchange of ideas- ideas that are at variance with
the time-worn ideas of the party. ‘ Garibi hatao’(remove poverty) would have
worked four decades ago; today the message people want is ‘unnathi lao’(usher
in progress). The party that boasted of outstanding intellectuals in the first
few years of independence failed to generate a resonance with the people who
looked for new ideas that would bring in equitable development to all citizens.
The party has till date not come forward with a blueprint of what it proposes
to do if voted back to power. After its abysmal showing in 2014, the party has not put forward a manifesto that
can swing the voters towards it. All through these two years when it has been
out of office, it has been in an attacking mode, just carping and caviling at the ruling party as
though that would fetch votes. Congress has forgotten the elementary truism
that world applauds those who are positive and abhors those who are negative.
Since
the party has lost the verve to revive itself and expects the current ruling
party to fall due to its own weight, the chances of it coming back to power are
fast receding. If a nation does not have a strong and worthy opposition, the
danger of sliding from democracy to veiled dictatorship becomes a reality and
if this happens, Congress alone is to be blamed.
It is time for the young and the old in
Congress (and all other opposition parties), individually and collectively to
start functioning as a shadow government and work out fresh models of
development that ensure fair and equitable enjoyment of a welfare state through
proper and proportionate distribution of the nation’s resources. This may sound
utopian but it is more pragmatic than idealistic. For this to happen, it is
axiomatic that everyone works to earn a share in the nation’s pie. A country
like India, so vast and so diverse cannot be developed by just a few influential
groups who corner a lion’s share of the country’s resources. Unless and until
there is contribution and participation by the people in a useful and
productive measure, all these may sound empty idealism. The present ruling
party with a daily announcement of a new scheme with a new acronym has not
generated the desired positive impact on the large disadvantaged groups in many
parts of the country. It is sad that the politics of the country today stops
with attacking, criticizing and foisting charges on one another. The nation
cannot be run by filing cases in the court. The main pillars of development that need
reforms and revampment are education, health and employment. If these three are
well provided for, all ancillary benefits such as food, housing and better
living conditions will accrue. Raising slogans about rooting out corruption as
a prime agenda of the government no longer cut ice with the voters. Moral
values, discipline and commitment cannot be enforced by punitive laws. Physical well being, intellectual growth and assured
basic necessities of life are sine qua non for people to internalize these
values. Today no political party has any programme for the people; all
programmes are policy statements hewed in the corridors of the party bosses and
are not for the people, of the people and by the people. Indian democracy stops
at the voting booths. From then on, it yields to the combined power of the
bureaucrats and politicians.
If
Congress fails to address the above issues that are central to its present fall
and to its future recovery it will forever be an empty asafetida jar.
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