HVK Archives: Double-faced Congress
Double-faced Congress - The Indian Express
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December 6, 1998
Title: Double-faced Congress
Author: M. V. Kamath
Author: Organiser
Date: December 6, 1998
For years the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has led a
campaign of abuse against the Congress party and said some of
the most unkind things about it. This is common knowledge. For
the CPM, the Congress was Enemy Number One. The CPM was
committed to revolution, not a non-violent one, but one
accompanied by killing. Though it can claim its distance from
the Naxals, the latter were an upshoot of the CPM as anybody can
tell. Communist leaders by the score can be quoted to prove this
but let just one quotation suffice. The Hindustan Standard (18-2-
69) quoted Pramode Dasgupta as saying that the party's goal is
"Socialism" -whatever that might mean, and "for that is required
bloody revolution". And Dasgupta added: "We want to reach the
state of clash between the Centre and the State through the path
of parliamentary democracy to such a level that it would spark
off the bloody revolution". The Government of India called these
views repugnant to the Constitution (Lok Sabha Debates, 21 March
1969). The CPM is not committed to peace. It is, on the other
'hand, wedded to violence. Everything that it does is to
facilitate the "bloody revolution" the party has in mind. If
Congress (I) president Sonia Gandhi believes that she can depend
upon the CPM to overthrow the BJP government, she is going to
learn a painful lesson. And it is not Congress that in the end
will have to pay a price. The price will be paid by the
country. As a newcomer to politics Sonia Gandhi has much to
learn about CPM perfidy. It was totally wrong on her part to
invite Jyoti Basu, the West Bengal Communist leader, to deliver
the 1998 Nehru Memorial Lecture. It was worse still to compare
Jyoti Basu to the venerable Congress leader, Dr B.C. Roy, Dr Roy
was a humanist, who, till the end of his life, gave his time and
attention to the amelioration of the suffering of the poor and
die sick. To compare Jyoti Basu to Dr Roy is an insult to the
memory of that great man. But evidently Sonia Gandhi is courting
the CPM. Somebody should tell her that the CPM is quite capable
of slitting anyone's throat to achieve its disreputable ends.
Only a total, moron would be taken in by Jyoti Basu's promise
that the CPM would "establish a higher civilisation where, love,
sympathy and altruism for human beings reign supreme". To have
an idea of what he means by "a higher civilisation" one has only
to visit the slums and streets of Calcutta to understand where
the CPM's "love, sympathy and altruism" had led the unhappy
Bengalis. Industrialist shun West Bengal and treat it with
disdain. Many would rather shut down their shutters than be
subjected to the harassment of CPM cadres. The CPM promises
"issue-based support" to the Congress. A.K. Antony of Kerala who
surely understands the CPM better than most Congressmen has
already said that such support is meaningless. "For the last 50
years", said this leader of the Opposition in the Kerala
Assembly, "Congress was the left parties' worst enemy. They are
not computers but men with ideologies which cannot change
overnight... The attitude that pull down the BJP Government
first, the rest of the things can be decided later, cannot be
endorsed". Antony knows his CPM as he knows the back of his
hand. He has lived with them and he understands them.
Even granting that this is election time and politicians are
accustomed to speak from both sides of their mouth, there is
much that Sonia Gandhi has been saying that calls for serious
questioning. Thus, addressing an election gathering in Bikaner
in Rajasthan on 26 October, Sonia Gandhi said-and these are her
exact words: "These people (the BJP) are crowing with pride
about the Pokaran nuclear blasts. But in the villages near
Pokaran, people are struggling for drinking-water. What sort of
development is this?" Indira Gandhi, in her heaven must be
weeping to hear her daughter-in-law's remarks. Is it wrong for
the BJP to be proud of the nuclear scientists' achievement? Let
a poll, nation-wide be taken on how the people feel. The entire
nation is crowing with pride with the BJP. And that is how it
should be. But let one ask another question about water supply.
Pokaran-I was conducted over thirty years ago. During those
thirty odd years, it was the Congress party that was mostly in
power at the Centre. And what, pray, did the Congress do to
provide water to the villages around Pokaran? Does Sonia Gandhi
seriously believe that what the Congress failed to do in over
thirty years, the BJP can do in six months during most of which
the party was harassed beyond imagination by the Congress along
with its new-found friends in the Left? And when Sonia Gandhi
said that while the common man was crying for basic necessities
of life-electricity, water, better roads and development-all
that he got was a broken back, the BJP might well legitimately
ask what the Congress had been doing these last fifty years! Smt
Gandhi obviously has no sense of history nor a sense of shame.
Apart from that, the country should be told in clear terms
whether she approves of Pokaran-II or not. Would she like India
to be nuclearly disarmed while China-and even more importantly,
Pakistan-has access to nuclear arms?
If one is to believe Sonia Gandhi, Congress is "different" from
other parties, because for the Congress it is "development and
not personal welfare" that has priority. Really? Was that why
the people effectively threw out the Congress in the 1989
general elections? Rajiv Gandhi himself was defeated because of
his alleged involvement with Bofors. To this day the case has
not been satisfactorily resolved. And one wonders whether it
will ever be. Incidentally, it was under Congress regime that
that paragon of virtue, Romesh Sharrna, made his fortune. Wasn't
the Congress party aware of his shenanigans? Wasn't it under
Congress rule that Dawood Ibrahim's mother got a visa to get out
of the country within hours of her application for the same? Did
officials under the Congress regime ever enquire into her
antecedents? There will be loud guffaws in political circles
over Sonia Gandhi's remark that the "Congress is not dependent
on a single leader". If that were so, why was she elected? And
why is every Congressman kow-towing to her, day in and day out?
Sonia Gandhi is acting like a dictator, just as her mother-in-
law did. Incidentally, the country will he watching how many of
the Congress nominees to the legislatures of Rajasthan, Delhi,
Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram would heed the Code of Conduct
approved of by the Working Committee, how many will wear khadi
habitually, give up drinking and perform manual work. And how
many will pay what they owe to the MTNL in Delhi and how many
will vacate their bungalows that some still illegally continue
to occupy. Before reading a moral lecture to the BJP, the Sonia-
led Congress might show by example that an, ounce of practice is
worth more than a ton of precept. What does Sonia Gandhi think
Indians are: fools?
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