Why are Congressmen leaving in herds?

“Acquisition, acquisition, acquisition, merger! Until there was only one business left in every field.” ― Vincent H. O'Neil

The workers and leaders leaving Congress are making headlines. Media believes this is the  impact of poaching by the ruling party. Public perception is that the Congress leadership has failed to keep up pace with the changing environment. The rebels blame it on lack of dialogue and listening. The Prime Minister has a dream to have Congress mukt Bharat. To know the truth one has to dig deeper to find out how congress came into existence and how it flourished in the past and why it is failing now. The history goes back to 1857.

Post revengeful slaughtering of Indian rebel sepoy as well as civilians during 1857-58 swadhinta sangram, Congress was formed to improve the tainted image of the British rule. The history itself has been cruel to report this criminal act, therefore it is important to share a few reports given by the western media.

“Remember Cawnpore!' which would become the British battle cry for the remainder of the rebellion." Even suspicion of sympathy for rebels could mean hanging or being tied to the mouth of a cannon and blown apart.”

-By Karl E. Meyer, May 12, 1996, The New York Times.

The matter did not end here, tens of thousands were killed yet ;

“Numerous villages that had given support to the rebels were burnt to the ground. Others had punitive taxes imposed upon them for years afterwards. The Indo-gangetic plain endured serious famines in which millions died in 1857-59, 1861 and 1865. To escape these conditions, hundreds of thousands migrated.  Many left India altogether, migrating overseas to work in colonial sugar plantations as indentured labourers.

Despite all the above Indians were not ready to give up their right to freedom and a confidential British report indicated a growing discontent against the Raj. In a period of less than 25 years the Britishers were not ready to fight another battle. The retired ICS officer A.O Hume submitted a proposal to engage the Indian elite to provide a platform to share their concern and diffuse the situation. Some scholars say it was a hoax created by Hume. In May 1885, As per unconfirmed report, Hume secured the viceroy’s approval to create an "Indian National Union", which would be affiliated with the government and act as a platform to voice Indian public opinion. Hume and a group of educated Indians came together on 12 October 1985.

 The basic idea behind forming congress was to have a dialogue and to diffuse  the feeling of revolt. As a result whenever any congress leader attempted to raise the issue of full freedom. The person was taught a lesson or he left the organization. Let’s examine starting from the beginning.

Fight for freedom but do not expect it inside the Congress.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the first to raise the issue of  Swaraj, Lala Lajpat rai in Punjab along with Vipin Chandra pal formed the group of three members who were not against the use of force to achieve the goal of full freedom. Tilak was imprisoned many times and he was called "the father of Indian unrest" by British author Sir Valentine Chirol. He declared  "Swaraj (self-rule) is my birthright and I shall have it."

 Lajpat Rai was elected congress president in 1920.he traveled west and met Sikhs settled there and encouraged  them to join the freedom struggle. He  was killed due to head injuries inflicted by police while he was protesting peacefully against the visit of Simon commision. He was so popular among youth that Bhagat singh avenged his death by killing British officers who were supposedly instrumental in ordering lathi charge on peaceful protesters.

Tilak was already sentenced  to six years imprisonment at Mandalay Jail in Burma. Where he developed many health issues.

Pre-independence

Mohammad Ali Jinnah: Opposed to Gandhi's noncooperation movement and his essentially Hindu approach to politics, Jinnah left  the Congress Party in 1920. His defection cost India heavily leading to partition of the country.

Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar : Hedgewar was active in the congress in the 1920s, but he became disillusioned with their policies and politics. He had been an active member of the party's volunteer division - Hindustani Seva Dal. He also read Mazzini  and other enlightened philosophers. He considered that the cultural and religious heritage of Hindus should be the basis of Indian nationhood. It is an irony that Jinnah left congress for appeasement of Hindu and Headgewar left it for the opposite reason. The fact is congress supported the wishes of the British ruler decietly. Present day Rashtriya swayamSevak Sangh has been founded by him and  BJP takes inspiration from its value system.

Arvind Ghosh: He left congress for spiritual reasons and advised Gandhi to do the same.

Subhash Chandra Bose defeated Pattabhi Seeta Rammaiya to become the congress president in 1939 . But Gandhi took defeat as personal and made members of the working committee resign using his aura in congress.Subhash Chandra Bose  left  the congress.

Post independence

“Defections hurt parties’ reputation and can even endanger their survival”. ( source unknown)

The list is too long which includes Ram Manohar Lohia, Jai prkadh Narain, Kamaraj, Nijalingappa, Morarji Desai, Chandra Shekhar, JagJivan Ram, Indra kumar Gujral VP singh and so on. The exodus has been so forceful that congress got divided 67 times. Few of the important splits took place in 1969, 1978, 1998. Recently Gulam Nabi Azad left congress and launched his own party. The declaration of election has opened floodgates of defection once again.

The reason

From inception congress worked on My way or no way. Initially the reason was picking of Indians  loyal to the Raj, who were eager to work for small incentives to participate  in governance. There was no plan to demand full freedom. As it grew in size and popularity, people with ideas and dreams joined. They were shocked to see the double standards. As discussed above 

Tilak declared freedom as his goal. It is unfortunate that congressmen never got the freedom inside the party despite India getting fractured freedom due to division of the country.

Can one think of a country becoming independent yet keeping the oppressor as first  viceroy of India. The real reason to form congress in 1885 was to safeguard British interests and it paid dividends at the time of independence. The nation paid a very heavy price as lord Mountbatten gave priority to British interests over that of India. A few incidents are worth examining.

●  India surrendered its right to reclaim the looted wealth from the British government. As per Shashi Tharoor, British museums are the depository of this loot.

●  Deciding the date of independence without creating the systems and processes. It led to anarchy and millions died in the violence erupted at that time.

●  Advising Nehru to take the Kashmir issue to the United Nations abruptly. Indian forces were about to clear Kashmir from invaders. It was a matter of a few days, had not gone to the United Nations voluntarily the nation would have been saved from three wars and Kargil.

●  India continued with inefficient and corrupt law enforcement agencies like police and judiciary. 76 years of freedom is not able to change these public servants . Indian courts still enjoy winter and summer  vacation making them the most relaxed lot. Millions of pending cases don’t touch their conscience.

The consequences.

“In partnership disputes, most of the partners will leave the alliance but not their arrogance”

― Amit Kalantri.


 

This is the mantra congress has lived with, Nehru was  the epitome of this philosophy.  He killed Indian democracy by subverting the majority decision of the congress working committee which elected Sardar Patel,by using the aura of Gandhi. He manipulated the name of Sardar patel to persuade Rajendra Prasad not to stand for the post of president. He did not respect the sacrifice made by Sardar Patel in withdrawing his name despite getting elected. He wanted C Rajagopalachari to be the president of India but could not work with him despite making him home minister after the death of Sardar patel. C Rajagopalachari resigned within two years.

     Mrs Gandhi took it forward, her manipulation of the presidential election to ensure defeat of congress candidate Neelam Sanjeev Reddy had no match. Changing of the southern state chief ministers at the drop of a hat, decimated congress from the state of tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.Recent state elections have brought it back in two states.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi along with her son Rahul Gandhi has done the remaining work to finish congress in northern states as well.

Challenge before BJP

Most of the congressmen can not live without power. They switch parties to enjoy power. In 1977 a similar exodus took place to join the Janata party. While it helped in gaining power however  it didn't last. These people defected and chose to form a government with the help of congress only. BJP claims to be a cadre based party wording for akhand Bharat and sabka sath sabka vikas but inducting these power hungry congressmen will not allow it to remain so.

●  Na khaunga na khane dunga’ will be under threat, Many of these people have come with a tinted image and they have only intention to escape investigations. The reckless inclusion will erode the credibility.

●  The incoming congress men taking over powerful political assignments may frustrate those cadres who toiled and worked hard to ensure success.

●  It is very difficult to know who is a genuine Vibhishan who has come to ensure the defeat of Ravana or the Ravana himself has come as Vibhishan to jeopardize the cart wagons.

Merger and acquisition rules learnt from management practices

It might be essential to accept Congressmen in states where BJP has no foothold but it is essential to protect culture and team spirit along with the value system. It can not happen on its own. There has to be a system to educate and train these people to adopt the existing culture swiftly. No trust without testing should be the ground rule.

Karnataka is a live example that BJP suffered on account of corruption charges leveled against few leaders coming from outside. The brand Modi is much bigger and valuable:

"The archetype he offers is of a strong, all-knowing father figure who is unwavering," Santosh Desai.

It has already suffered with the likes of Shatrughn sinha, Yashwant sinha, Babul supriyo and others.  From Byju to daiiChi, many acquisitions have failed on account of failure in managing cultural issues.

 Alliances with Shiv Sena, Akalis and Telugu desam parties have already taken a toll. The author has written in detail about the third home coming of Nitish Kumar in an earlier article.

Conclusion

Congress is on ‘shar shaiyya’ ( the death bed created for Bhishma in Mahabharat). It has opted for ‘ichchha mrityu’ ( Bhishma himself  told his secret to be killed by using Shikhandi). It will be foolish to allow Dhritarashtra to give Bheema a hug of death (Krishna placed a stone statue instead of Bheema whom Dhritraashtra turned to pieces using his killer hug).

The golden rule is, “Test first then trust”.

By Rakesh kumar
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