Congress Prefers Silence Over Belligerence as Modi Govt Falters

Congress appears to have lost the plot even as Modi government commits a series of missteps, writes Abheek Barman.

Earlier this week, The Quint published a striking lead montage. On the left, a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi enthusiastically beating a drum in Tanzania. On the right, a shot of a pitched street battle between Kashmiri youth and security personnel. While Kashmir burned, the PM was drumming up Africa. The visual said it all.

Almost every reader picked up on the irony of the situation from the visual. The only people to have missed the point altogether belong to India’s Grand Old Party, the Congress. At least, so it appeared.

In an earlier time, perhaps Congress volunteers might have taken to the streets, beating drums, taunting the BJP-led government’s failure to anticipate, and contain, the upsurge in Kashmir.

Party Has Leaders in J&K

It’s not that the Congress doesn’t have leaders in Jammu and Kashmir. Party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was picked up from the state as a young leader during Indira Gandhi’s time. Saifuddin Soz is a leader from the state; son Salman is one of Congress’ young media voices. Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi is a friend of Omar Abdullah, the youngest chief minister of J&K between 2009 and 2015.

But as the Kashmir Valley descends into chaos, the Congress is quiet. It’s as if this silence is a rebuke to the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP and BJP coalition that now governs J&K. Well, it doesn’t work.

The PDP-BJP alliance is in a spot and the Congress would have done itself a world of good by standing shoulder to shoulder with Abdullah and playing counterpoint to Modi’s African drumbeat.

Silent on Inflation

Consumer price inflation (CPI) numbers for June, which came in earlier this week, showed prices growing at their fastest clip in 22 months. This should worry any ruling establishment, and provide ammunition to the opposition. Indian voters, mostly poor and vulnerable to rising prices, punish inflationary regimes. High onion prices have toppled state governments in the past.

This time too high food prices are driving consumer inflation. The Congress could have seized upon this to attack the government, but that too is an opportunity wasted.

The Congress’ silence on the government’s decision to hike the price of kerosene, announced Tuesday, by 25 paise per litre and continue doing so every month, is also inexplicable.

The kerosene price hike will add fuel to inflation. It could have given the opposition more than enough ammo to attack the BJP as a “suit-boot sarkar” that is blind to the plight of the little guy.

No Questions on Next RBI Governor

The announcement that widely-respected governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would quit in September has rattled investors. Raghuram Rajan, perceived to be a monetary hawk, wanted CPI down to 5 percent by March. Instead, it hovers at 5.8 percent today. With just two months before Rajan leaves Mint Street, the government is yet to decide on a successor. The Congress has, predictably, failed to capitalise on the dither and the market uncertainty caused by it.

Missing In Action

• Congress’ despondency in raising issues that could tarnish BJP’s image smacks of political immaturity.
  
• An issue at hand was unrest in J&K when the Congress could have held the government in a tight spot for taking three days to respond to the crisis.
  
• For a party that seems to care for the aam aadmi, hike in kerosene prices also seems to have gone unnoticed.
  
• Murky episode that led to Rajan’s exit should’ve given enough fodder to the Opposition for hitting out at the government.
  
• Is the Grand Old Party so busy strategising for state elections that it has allowed crucial issues to slip out of its hand?
  

Rahul’s Disappearance

The GOP has also been muted in its reactions to attacks on Dalits, tribals and minorities in several states ruled by BJP-led governments. Party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, once seen agitating with students of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, is seldom seen in public now.

He made a rare public appearance on July 13, as the Congress rejoiced after a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court annulled President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh. A floor test could bring Nabam Tuki, the overthrown chief minister, back to power in this sensitive north-eastern state with a 1,100 km border with China.

Failure to Score

That, and the return of Harish Rawat as Uttarakhand chief minister after the failure of a centrally-sponsored coup earlier this year, have been two bright spots in an otherwise gloomy landscape for the Congress. But why has the party failed to score through so many gaps in the BJP’s defences?

“Uttar Pradesh and Punjab polls (due next summer) occupy almost the entire thinking of the party leadership. That relegates other issues to the background,” says a senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity.

Sure. It also threatens to turn the party that led India’s freedom movement with a strategy of mass mobilisation into an organisation of strategists sans popular leaders or broad public support.

(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist. He can be reached at @AbheekBarman)

Also read:

When Narendra ‘Nero’ Modi Drummed as Kashmir Burned

In Picking Raj Babbar as its UP Chief, Congress Shows Some Spunk