Shiban Khaibri
Once, one of the shrewd Indian politicians and wedded to uncompromising principles Morarji Desai, during his brief stint as Prime Minister, was asked for a comment on a statement of a (the then) young Congress leader, to which his response was “does the guy merit a response from me”? However, since the particular statement of whatever levels of mediocrity by the said leader of his Party was given in the country , he chose to remain gracefully silent not attaching any importance to that. Late Smt. Indira Gandhi had reportedly virtually snubbed a journalist in London soon after her release from the imprisonment when he asked her in a press conference, “What is your experience of prison in India ?” She replied very assertively and boldly, “I do not want to talk anything bad about my country in this conference”. It may be recalled that she was arrested by Morarji Desai Government on October 4, 1977 and within hours only released by the court. She definitely wore a splendid badge of the blend of courage and patriotism.
However, when any statement and of sensitive nature but wholly concocted is given on a foreign soil by a leader of the Congress who even was its President and the narrative parking at nothing less than denigrating his own country , it hurts and must hurt every patriotic Indian. It must hurt and deeply anguish the people when the narrative is all quite far from the truth and smelling seriously of something fishy , the sole intent, however, being to show the country’s Prime Minister down but in the process, projecting a very poor and pathetic picture of the country before the select audience. In the present highly digital era of fast information technology , the narrative spreads like a wild fire especially when India under the present leadership is transforming and leapfrogging in growth and progress in every area even to the envy of the most developed countries of the world. Hence, it seems well calculated and planned which smacks of utter hypocrisy and parks at the fallacy of parroting any love and ”concern” for this country. It is, therefore, definitely a serious phenomenon as already there are various disruptive and secessionists elements raising head to weaken this country even daring to breaking it. BBC, Soros, New York Times, different toolkits and the like are apparently active to weaken this country , its unity and integrity , its sovereignty and territorial integrity and derail its speeding engine of growth and development. That must never be allowed to succeed by the people who are witnessing the rise of a new India, a powerful India and a vibrant India .
During the so called “Bharat Jodo Yatra”, many statements given by Rahul Gandhi under the garb of promoting his “Mohabat Key Dukaan” in the monopolistic market of “Nafrat Ka Baazar” , merit at best to be taken just in a lighter vein but many of those ones spoken having connotations of many hues cannot be just written off. For example ” With Pandvas ( of Mahabharata period) there were people of all religions” and his question “Did Pandavas ever implement demonetization or press for any wrong GST ?” The history is thus pathetically distorted and that too knowingly by peddling ”People of all religions” when there was only one religion – the oldest of the mankind – the Sanatan Dharam – followed by both Kauravas and Pandavas . What does he actually want to convey ? How could Pandavas implement the demonetization and thrust on people the GST ? You have habitually to attack the two most important and earnestly required economic reforms because you want , by any count, to criticise the PM , you can do that but giving fallacious analogies turns the intended criticism into nothing less than pieces of amusement or comedy. Politics is serious business where amusement , comedies and wild imaginations play spoilsports.
Cambridge University ”campaign” had some sprinkles of the culmination of the so called ”Bharat Jodo Yatra” in Kashmir which Rahul Ji shared with the audience. One of those had more interesting but very serious nuance and undercurrent. With the audience he recalled how he once ”faced” terrorists when the “yatra” had entered Kashmir . Says he, “….the man pointed towards some nearby people and revealed they were all terrorists and I thought I was in trouble but they did not do anything because (according to him) it is the power of listening.” Well, either he was narrating a story of fairies and golden birds and of fancy to some children or a thing woven in imagination to the listeners’ expected kudos and all praises to be showered on him but they perhaps weighed it in the perspective as the Congress leader had tremendous heavy security cover . However , the question remains as to who pointed to some ”nearby people” who were terrorists and when exactly he ”revealed” it to the Congress leader . Why as a responsible citizen and an MP , he did not pass on the sensitive information to the security apparatus that was with him. Why , alternately, he did not use the “power of listening” to persuade them to shun the path of militancy and join the mainstream . He did neither yet he claims some heroism about it. This ”encounter” with the terrorists is containing the same levels of truth and purity as much as his allegation containing about the functioning microphones being ”silenced” in the Lok Sabha against the opposition. These serious aspersions on the highest seat of our democracy came from him while ”addressing” a group of British Parliamentarians in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons. He also levelled allegations to this extent that “opposition voices are stifled in India and that happened to me a number of times while I was speaking.”
The Vice President of te country and Chairman Rajya Sabha Shri Jagdeep Dhankar lambasted Rahul Ji’s such wild allegations by saying, ”If I observe silence on this orchestration by an MP outside the country which is motivated , I will be on the wrong side of the constitution and how can I sanctify the statement that microphones in the Parliament are put off ?” Deputy Chairman Rajya Sabha Harivansh refuted Rahul Gandhi’s allegation by saying, ”It is absolutely false , baseless , nothing can be more false than this, I have been in Parliament for the last 9 years and not even once have I heard anything like that from anyone.” He further aptly clarified that ”The Indian Parliament is being run with the same principles and traditions that it followed in 1952 when the first Lok Sabha was constituted after the independence. As regards the charge of he not being allowed to speak in the Parliament is as much true as someone would say that sun dips in ocean during the night to cool down. He did not share with the group of British Parliamentarians that on Rafale fighter jet deal, he had declared that as he would speak for just 15 minutes in the House, tremors could be felt far and wide and that “the Prime Minister would find no place to hide “. He in fact spoke for double the time but no tremors were felt . How come he thought of floating this piece of ”a thing which was not” and for what purpose, needs to be asked.
Not only that, Rahul Ji further declared that democracy was dead in India and that it was strange that United States and European countries were not intervening. The country where from Indian democracy got thus insulted had seen five Prime Ministers changing one after the other during a span of less than last 7 years and where democracy was itself seen getting weakened. On the contrary, how Indian democracy progresses and flourishes can be seen by the number of people participating in it. In 1951 a total of 45.6% people had cast their vote, In 1962 it rose to 50% followed by in 2014 by 66.4% and in 2019 by 67.5%. The present government was not installed but elected twice by the people of India democratically and constitutionally. If someone feels that its party is in the opposition , it is so on account of the people wishing it . It sounds ludicrous that a feeling should be given as if it is thrown out of power forcibly or by employing unconstitutional means. Why is it so that some Congress leaders go out and in foreign countries , seek their help in interfering in our transparent and impeccably clean democratic setup is hard to comprehend . Mani Shanker Ayer told in Pakistan, “Inn ko hatao aur hamen lao” and Rahul Gandhi has now become a somewhat habitual to do it. Last year in May , again from the same foreign soil , he had told that BJP had ” poured ” kerosene oil all over India and one spark will land ”us ” in big trouble. This time, he disregarded all boundaries of his duty as a responsible patriotic citizen and an elected MP to this country by saying that “Modi does not recognise Muslims , Sikhs and Christians as citizens of India and that he is ”breaking” India”.
There can be no parallel to the gumption of peddling such a canard which is ostensibly with the only aim and purpose of attacking Modi Ji but in the process rather innocently, going against the interests of the unity and integrity of the country in itself as it is tantamount to spreading hate between communities thus clearly deflating the claim of his opening of “Mohabatt key dukkan ” etc. By such a negativity the aim is ultimately to seriously attempt to influence the electoral choice of a major portion of Indian electorate in 2024 . Why cannot this unsubstantiated statement be particularly rued by those countrymen whom he sought to prove as “1st class citizens” being thus in all comfort , contentment and solely enjoying all luxuries , benefits and pleasures under the present government in the country ? He nowhere even casually mentioned about the persistent plight of 32 years of the indigenous inhabitants of the place – Kashmir- where he culminated his “yatra” and reaching where he sought to connect his roots. Was speaking about that ”connection” just a rhetoric ? Perhaps, for this allegation, he has won plaudits not from all his well wishers and followers within the Party which can now fear to lose more support from the general Indians.
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