[In order to have a better sense of perspective, one may also, in this context, look up: 'An Open Letter to the CEC, Yogendra Yadav & others: The result of this election will always have an asterisk next to it.' at < https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/05/21/open-letter-chief-election-commissioner-yogendra-yadav-election-2019?fbclid=IwAR0-dwd0XpVbpo6f_wyiWv8cVJFKldfLS_UAlsZvd5u4fdHJFLOx5IG0_10 >.]
I/II. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/yogendra-yadav-congress-exit-polls-2019-lok-sabha-elections-bjp-5741245/?fbclid=IwAR0uSgiYf-RUjeyw9XmAPM9U2U8oBlBz46wL-PFo6FWEHeScPfxWVHKwU24 Dear Yogendra, I disagree Why the Congress is necessary. Written by Suhas Palshikar | Updated: May 22, 2019 7:21:57 am Dear Yogendra, I disagree The “utility” of the Congress should not be ignored. Yogendra Yadav’s claim, that the Congress needs to die so that the way for a new politics may be cleared, calls for a response. In these times of easy branding, arguing in favour of the continued existence of the Congress runs the risk of being ridiculed both by pro-establishment circles and self-righteous pro-transformationists. So, the caveat is that the following is not an endorsement of “the Congress”. It is more about the fundamental nature of India’s politics, and also about the long romance called non-BJP, non-Congress politics. The Congress that Jawaharlal Nehru led was transformed by Indira Gandhi beyond recognition. This led to the crisis that the party has been facing since the late 1980s. Since then, the Congress has never been able to reorganise itself. Neither could it instil a new purpose among its workers nor convince voters to remain loyal to it. Many have often believed that the decline and demise of the Congress would open up new possibilities electorally, and also in terms of changing the nature of our politics. They believe that the Congress is an impediment to structuring any new politics. In the past three decades, liberals, radicals, leftists, have miserably failed to create a different politics. Using the Congress as an alibi for those failures tends to understate the in-built difficulties in the project Yadav is looking forward to. Along with the dream of alternative politics, the present moment also represents, as Yadav himself has recently articulated, India’s imminent journey into a dark tunnel. If one agrees with this prognosis, then the “utility” of the Congress should not be ignored. It would act as a buffer to the BJP and its power machine because it would want to protect itself. In the process, the Congress would end up protecting many others with whom it may not fully agree. The kind of assault on dissent and diversity the BJP is likely to unleash, would require a relatively strong political counter. It is likely that elections may not throw up a stronger counter to BJP than the present, wounded and incompetent Congress. Yet, this Congress would have its uses in times of crisis of democracy. The Yogendra Yadavs, Prakash Rajs, Kamal Haasans and Kanhaiya Kumars, despite the goodwill they enjoy, need larger social acceptability beyond their immediate circles in order to be operational. India’s democracy does not easily admit a liberal fringe or a radical liberal extravaganza. Nor is there enough space for an autonomous but healthy politics of “alternatives”. The politics of alternatives seeks to mainstream itself by changing society in the first place. Until society changes for the better, such politics has to piggy-back on political forces that occupy the mainstream. So, in seeking an end to the Congress, Yadav is probably undermining the feasibility of his own politics. This may sound an instrumentalist argument, but the politics of change also needs political support, a political vehicle, a sympathetic political mass. But beyond this instrumental logic, are there other reasons to plead for the survival of the Congress? First, among the dispersed non-BJP political forces, the Congress gets at least two votes out of every 10 — next to the BJP’s three in every 10. This is not an inconsiderable political space, though it is residual. This space shall go only to the BJP if the Congress were to die. Two, the Congress seems to be countering the BJP ideologically. One may not be fully happy with the response, but in the backdrop of the lame (or vacuously shrill) counterarguments made by state parties, the Congress would surely deserve credit for mobilising a semblance of opposition to the BJP. Three, if the Congress were really to die, the oppositional space would be occupied only by the state parties. Most of them have, at one point or the other, been allies of the BJP and facilitated the latter’s entry in the states — Odisha and Bihar being examples. In other words, in any electoral counter to the BJP, the Congress continues to be crucial despite itself. But there is a more fundamental reason for arguing against Yadav. Radical or transformative ambitions notwithstanding, at least in the near future, the game of electoral competition and shaping of public opinion will be played out within the range of broadly “middle-of-the-road” or centrist possibilities. Today, the BJP seeks to dominate this space and claim that it represents centrist tendencies. The Congress comprises possibilities of presenting the public with a somewhat different version of centrism. As is known, historically, the party included “right-wingers”, Hinduists and socialists et al. While the party may have lost that accommodative agility, it still has the capacity to attract citizens attracted to a centrist position. The death of the Congress would mean only one version of centrism survives — the one advocated by the BJP. The politics about the kind of democracy India would remain will be played out on the terrain that is more or less middle-of-the-road and that is where not just the Congress but many other parties, with clumsy ideologies and even limited visions, would be valuable. A victory for the BJP’s version of centrism holds three challenges. One, its pursuance of Hindutva, which has already contaminated ordinary Hindu religious sensibilities. The other is its present leadership, which represents a cynical appropriation of existing liberal democratic spaces toward the end of uninhibited personalisation of authority. Even without Hindutva, this is reason enough to ensure that there is enough political possibility of constraining them. Third, the centrism of BJP is rather fragile, it can be easily set aside by Adityanath or Pragya Thakur; they, certainly, are not the fringe, but claimants to the main space of the BJP, representing a more direct attack on India’s diversity and plurality. EC rejects Opposition parties demand on changes to VVPAT counting process Of late, Yadav himself has been talking about reviving the true swabhav and swadharm of India. The Congress may not be actively protecting that, yet its existence would allow many Indians who still hold on to their swadharm — simply through their native wisdom — to retain that innate character of being true Indians. The writer was a professor of political science and is based in Pune II. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/lok-sabha-elections-elections-results-congress-bjp-rahul-gandhi-5741251/?fbclid=IwAR33Vs1FerNbHMJOBFsYUZCtPcaAhDJDjXTpuZChXxKchda0UVO4VpXXqvU Why Congress can’t: It doesn’t possess the vision, strategy or ground strength The Congress is an obstacle to those who want to build an alternative. A large mainstream party acts like a magnet that catches a lot of energy around it. So, even when the Congress is unable to defeat the BJP, it ends up diverting and diffusing a lot of the energy that gets drawn to it. Written by Yogendra Yadav | Updated: May 22, 2019 3:40:00 pm Ludhiana: Congress President Rahul Gandhi addresses an election rally ahead of the last phase of Lok Sabha polls, in Ludhiana. (PTI) My remark on a TV show, that the “Congress must die”, has triggered a debate, perhaps somewhat prematurely, on the role of the country’s principal Opposition party in the times to come. Some of the early reactions have been virulent. Perhaps the timing of the remark made it look like an attempt to kick someone when he is down. And the metaphor of death invited strong emotional reaction. Let me, therefore, spell out the rationale in the hope that it would generate a more serious and constructive debate. Let me begin by clarifying what this remark was not. One, it was not a knee-jerk emotional outburst in reaction to an exit poll. I had expressed a similar opinion earlier too. The broad judgment is not dependent on the exit polls, unless, of course, the Congress manages to defeat the BJP in the states where it is a direct Congress-BJP contest. Two, I harbour no animus or khundak against Congress leaders. I have said publicly that Rahul Gandhi is more sincere than most political leaders that I have met and far more intelligent than everyone thinks. Three, this is not a forecast. I know big political parties don’t die easily, and not just because they lose two elections. I don’t have Pragya Thakur’s powers to give shrapa (curse), so you may call it my wish. Finally, this wish is not born out of a congenital anti-Congressism. I have always maintained that Ram Manohar Lohia’s anti-Congressism was a short-term political tactic and must not be turned into an ideology. Unlike most Lohiaites, I have come to admire the role of Nehru and the Congress party in nation-building in the first two decades after Independence. To my mind, the core issue is assessing the Congress’ potential in acting as a bulwark against the onslaught on the foundations of our republic. There are two assumptions here. One, the rise of the Narendra Modi-led BJP presents a threat to the core constitutional values of democracy and diversity. Two, as the principal national Opposition party, the Congress carries the first charge of protecting the republic against this onslaught. Once we agree on these, and I think most of my critics would share these assumptions, then we can enter into a meaningful debate and disagreement on the following questions: Has the Congress done justice to this historical responsibility in the last five years? Or, can it be trusted to perform this responsibility in the foreseeable future? My answer is a clear no. The Congress is not just not up to this task, it is a hurdle for those who wish to do so. Let us look at what the Congress did, or rather didn’t, in the last five years. The Modi regime’s economic performance was below average. Did the Congress organise any nation-wide mass movement to articulate and mobilise the farmers’ distress, or the rising unemployment among the youth, or the small traders’ anger against the way the GST was being implemented, not to speak of the disaster of demonetisation? These five years were marked by a spate of lynching of Muslims and rising atrocities against Dalits. Did the Congress even articulate it coherently in a way that would make sense to non-Muslims and non-Dalits as well? Or take this election, after the Congress got a dream launch-pad with victory in three assembly elections. Did the Congress do something in these three states that could be presented as an alternative to the Modi regime? Did the Congress have a message for the voters of this country? No doubt, it finally came out with a decent manifesto, but that is hardly a political message for the last person. Nor did it have a credible messenger. Pitted against Modi’s communicative onslaught, Rahul Gandhi carried little appeal. The Congress did not appear to have a strategy to handle the post-Pulwama “nationalist” blitz by the BJP. And it certainly had no roadmap for building a Mahagathbandhan: Just compare how the BJP brought back the Shiv Sena and the AGP with how the Congress dealt with alliances in UP, Bihar and Delhi. I don’t overlook the odds the Congress was up against: The Modi government’s brazen misuse of state power, its mind-boggling money power and the near complete control over mainstream media. But did the Congress do what could be done under these constraints? Besides, the only reason why mainstream parties exist and flourish is their viability and reach. The Congress cannot say everyone must come to it because this is the only party that can take on the BJP and then give reasons why it couldn’t. EC rejects Opposition parties demand on changes to VVPAT counting process Let’s focus on the future. The prospects of a second Modi regime bring with it two deeper challenges to our republic. On the one hand, we are walking towards electoral authoritarianism where the electoral mandate will replace any constitutional constraints. On the other hand, there is a slide towards non-theocratic majoritarianism, where minorities are reduced to the status of second-rate citizens. Do we expect the Congress to be the principal force to combat these two dangers? To my mind, the Congress does not seem to possess the vision, the strategy or the ground strength to take on this historic responsibility. If so, the Congress is not the instrument needed to save the republic. Worse, the Congress is an obstacle to those who want to build an alternative. A large mainstream party acts like a magnet that catches a lot of energy around it. So, even when the Congress is unable to defeat the BJP, it ends up diverting and diffusing a lot of the energy that gets drawn to it. It won’t do the job and won’t let anyone else do it. Alternative politics cannot take off until it calls the bluff of “Vote for Congress or else…”, unless it begins to carry on its work as if the Congress did not exist. This is how the metaphor of death should be understood. Of course, parties don’t wither away or die an instant death. There are two ways in which the Congress can “die”. There is death by attrition, where a big party keeps getting marginalised and gradually loses traction with the voters. This process takes many elections, perhaps many decades. This is exactly what the BJP would wish for the Congress. But there is also death by submergence, where the remaining energy of the party gets subsumed in a new, larger coalition. There is still a lot of energy in the country to take on the challenge to our republic. The ideal “death” for the Congress would be for this energy, inside and outside the Congress, to merge into a new alternative. The dark metaphor of death is an invitation to think about a new birth. Or a rebirth? (The writer is president, Swaraj India) -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyouth/CACEsOZiqS6Rd1PHXsQMrSFsM645LHgssp1LdCMup37v8AxRQ7Q%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
