November 21, 2024

In Raising Balakot, Revanth Reddy Flogs A Dead Horse

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2024-05-11 15:03:12

About the Author

Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

View all posts by this Author

Congress leaders do not give up, do they? After having lost the 2019 elections despite casting doubts on the Balakot air strike and claiming that the BJP cooked it up to brighten its election prospects, at least one of them is bent of flogging dead horses and is raking up the issue again.

Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy, otherwise given to measured speech, on Saturday raised questions about the Balakot air strike. Reddy first blasted the government for intelligence failure that led to the Pulwama terrorist attack and then said that the country does not know for sure whether the Balakot air strikes happened as claimed by the government.

But doesn't Reddy know that raising a matter that didn't get dividends for the Congress in the 2019 elections will not pay. It is unlikely to get them now? Other than showing that the Congress has nothing new to talk about, raising Balakot in the election campaign now is also poor strategy.

Or is it that the Telangana chief minister is trying to divert the minds of the people in the state from local issues? It has been variously reported that the campaign in Telangana is focused on local issues and national issues have not captured the minds of the people. Reddy knows that since the Congress is in power in the state, the focus on local issues is likely to hurt it. That is why he trying to rake up national issues.

But as said earlier, this is poor strategy. The BJP was quick to say that the chief minister is questioning the 'bravery' of the armed forces and giving Pakistan a 'clean chit'. There are many other national issues that Reddy could have highlighted if he wanted to change the narrative form local to national. Latching on to an old and failed issue (for the opposition) is not going to help the Congress in the state.