oppn parties Kharge Has A Tough Task At Hand

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
oppn parties
Kharge Has A Tough Task At Hand

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-10-21 07:05:02

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

Mallikarjun Kharge has been elected the president of the Congress at a time when the party is facing an existential crisis. Apart from successive electoral setbacks, both at national and state levels, it has been rocked by internal problems which have led to high profile leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal, to name just two, resigning from the party. In the recent past, the party has also bungled big time in internal policy matters with the Punjab and the recent Rajasthan fiasco being the most damning. It is being pushed to the wall by an aggressive BJP and the equally aggressive regional parties who think that they can occupy the space that is being vacated by a hitherto rudderless party that was unable to come to terms at being out of power for such a long period of time.

Hence, Kharge will have to work on both fronts. He will have to simultaneously set the house in order and devise ways and means to arrest the declining popularity graph of the party. The Congress party is blessed with something that no other party (apart from BJP) has - a robust all-India infrastructure and a sizeable vote share (although declining in each successive election). But the main problem is that due to successive electoral setbacks since 2014 and its incoherent and tepid response to BJP's brand aggressive pro-Hindutva and nationalist politics, the party cadre has lost the will to fight. Kharge's first and most urgent response should be to reinvigorate the party from ground up by firing the cadre with enthusiasm. This can only be done if the party is clear in how it wishes to counter the BJP and the regional parties. Since it does not have a magnetic vote-catcher like Narendra Modi, the party will only win if it can convince the people about what it intends to do if elected rather than by just rubbishing what the BJP is doing.

There is no doubt that there must be a strong opposition in a democracy. The Congress was best suited to be the leader of the opposition pack. But it has abdicated that space and allowed others to stake claim by behaving as a poor loser and not behaving as a party that wishes to return to power. Kharge has to change that and ensure that the Congress is able to give the BJP a run for its money in 2024. It must be remembered that the BJP got just 38% vote share nationally in 2019. Hence, there are 62% of Indians who still vote for the opposition. With the right response and strategic alliances, the opposition can still beat the BJP. But given Congress' history, it remains to be seen how effective Kharge can be (and whether he can erase the rubberstamp president tag) and if the Gandhi family allows him the degree of independence necessary to take strong measures to revive the party. 

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