oppn parties Fighting Fire With Fire Will Be Disastrous For The Congress

News Snippets

  • India will fast-track deployment of 52 defence surveillance satellites
  • In a first, Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai helps patients draw up living will
  • Calcutta HC says that an arrest warrant cannot be issued against an accused who is on anticipatory bail, and if that person is arrested, he or she must be released as per the conditions of the anticipatory bail
  • Monsoon covers entire India 9 days ahead of schedule
  • Maharashtra government scraps order making Hindi the 3rd language in state schools after protests by civil society and opposition
  • A government report says that 64.3% of the population is now under the social security net, up from only 22% in 2016
  • The finance ministry has asked PSB to look at ways to monetise their investment in subsidiaries, by listing them on the stock exchanges
  • After auditor flags overlimit expenses, Karnataka Bank MD & CEO S Hari Hara Sarma and ED Sekhar Rao resign
  • Rosneft likely to sell its stake in Nayara Energy to RIL
  • Ola junks commission-based income model, opts for a daily flat fee from drivers with the hope of attracting more drivers to its platform
  • Torrent Pharma will acquire a controlling stake in JB Chem for Rs 18000cr by buying 46.4% from US fund KKR and another 26% from the public by making an open offer
  • Speculation persists over Jasprit Bumrah making the playing 11 in the second Test against England starting July 2
  • FIH Pro hockey: Indian women slump to their 8th successive loss as they lose to China 2-3
  • US Open BWF Super 300 badminaton: Ayush Shetty wins his first BWF world title by beating Canadian Brian Young 21-18,21-13 but Tanvi Sharma lost in the finals to Beiwwwan Zhang 11-21, 21-16, 10-21
  • R Praggananda wins Tashkent meet, become number 1 chess player in India with FIDE rating of 2799
The SIT formed to probe law college gang-rape in Kolkata has collected the hockey stick used to hit the victim and other rape evidence from the coolege campus /////// Rath Yatra stampede in Puri kills 3
oppn parties
Fighting Fire With Fire Will Be Disastrous For The Congress

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2018-09-17 13:24:06

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
If its latest strategy in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh can be taken an indication, the Congress has decided to fight fire with fire. As Rahul Gandhi visits Bhopal for a road show today (17th September), the city is plastered with posters describing him as a Shiv bhakt, taking a cue from his Mansarovar Yatra, complete with him pouring water (thankfully not milk) over the Shiv ling. This is a new strategy as the Congress had previously shied away from such overt display associated with religion, especially Hinduism, to preserve its secular credentials.

While this must be a conscious decision by the Congress to prevent the BJP from consolidating Hindu votes, it is fraught with danger. The Congress has always relied on the solid backing of its minority vote bank, cultivated gingerly through the years. If it now indulges in in-your-face Hindutva to fight the BJP, it might anger the minorities. Then obviously, the Congress will be left na ghar ka na ghat ka. For, the party can hope to add a few hundred Hindu voters through the Shiv bhakt stance. But the loss of minority voters can be much more and it will be disastrous for the party.

Hence, instead of fighting for the Hindu votes, the party should follow its old stance of appealing to all classes of Indians by being secular and liberal. The Congress suffered in the last elections for five well defined things –anti-incumbency, the massive scams under UPA II, lack of charismatic leader to counter Narendra Modi, divided opposition and Rahul Gandhi’s image of an unprepared leader. This time around, the BJP will suffer anti-incumbency, the Congress has got many favourable court rulings in the scam cases, the opposition is working towards being united and Rahul Gandhi has shed his pappu image to emerge as a workable alternative to Narendra Modi. Hence, the party must not queer the pitch by wooing just the Hindu votes.