Is Congress Mukat Bharat becoming reality?

BY: RANBIR MANHAS PUBLISHED ON APRIL 5, 2018

With emergence of the so called federal front, Indian politics seems gradually heading towards bipolar democracy which in a country like India is very important. Although this should have happened decades ago it is not bad even if it is happening today believing that it is always ‘better late than never’.

By polar politics in India is good but only if two national parties confront each other on the basis of ideology and policies, but here out of the two national political parties—Congress having decided to leave its national character, electoral contest of 2019 is bound to remain restricted between BJP and the Federal Front thus making it abundantly clear that Modi’s dream of making ‘Congress Mukat Bharat’ was going to become a reality.

I strongly believe that neither Congress is India nor is BJP and that India can survive even without them. But I am equally convinced that India cannot survive in the absence of both of them which represent country’s national unity. On the other hand the proposed Federal Front is dangerous for the unity of the country because its constituents having different and contradictory local aspirations will pull the country in different directions thus tearing it in parts as it happens to a cloth that gets torn into pieces when pulled from different directions. Imagine what will become of the country when its every state will demand its own flag, its own official language and its own constitution?

As for Congress it has committed some blunders in the past. For instance, on one hand to maintain the hegemony of Gandhi Parivar, Congress got itself rid of dynamic leaders like VP Singh, Sharad Pawar, Mufti Sayeed, P.A Sangma and Mamta Benerjee, while on the other hand it surrendered before regional parties to remain in power.

Unfortunately however, in a bid to get rid of Modi (a day dream), Congress instead of learning lesson from its past blunders is hell bent to once again repeat its past suicidal policy of depending on regional parties instead of strengthening its own cadres and organizational set up leaving the national space to be occupied by BJP alone.

Since coalition governments mostly comprising of different and contradictory local aspirations have a poor ‘strike rate’ it is bound to fail this time also. To avoid such a situation Congress should have realized its national responsibility for which unfortunately, it is not prepared. In this backdrop one can easily profess that instead of prevailing multi-party democracy India is destined to have either China type one party rule or USA type of federal politics with BJP representing the national politics and others representing their respective regional sentiments. As for Congress, I do not see any role at least in the near future.