Congress strategy - crush saffron, to harvest Muslim votes in UP
That is the whole game plan and Ritambhara and VHP provided the ready excuse to the government. Fighting the menace of corruption is not the priority of this government of corrupt, wily, and bastardised politicians. Sonia and Manmohan consider it a non-issue since they are both products and beneficiaries of systemic corruption. The Congress party cannot exist without it. Asking them to refrain from looting public wealth is like snatching a juicy bone from a dog’s jaws. Its very structure is corrupt, well-suited to its ‘below-average in intelligence’ cadre and leaders. Look at their crown prince Rahul Gandhi. Small town youngsters are more socially and intellectually alert and politically aware than him. They even have real university degrees.
The Congress high command wants its electoral arithmetic right, especially in the key Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. They need the Muslims back in their fold and the only way to do it is to go after anything saffron with hate-filled eyes, spewing venom, and doing everything to humiliate those who are even remotely associated with the fiery colour. A simpleton and politically novice guru like Ramdev was an easy target. It will be the RSS next, the ultimate demon in the eyes of Muslims, and of course Narendra Modi, the perpetual hate figure of the community.
Digvijay Singh’s vituperative and incendiary utterances, deliberately made from Muslim platforms with maulana caps on his head, have a definite objective and are part of a grand master plan to install Rahul Gandhi on Delhi’s rajgaddi after a win in UP.
Had he been making such statements against a maulavi from a saffron platform, he would have been beaten up and despatched to jail under the NSA by Mayavati.
The key to electoral success in UP is the Muslim vote bank that had helped the Congress win the parliamentary constituencies in the state’s Islamist belt in the last elections.
How do you convince the Muslims that you are their friend?
Obviously by loudly expressing respect for Osama Bin Laden, and love for the Indian Mujahideen and the SIMI, by outpouring heartfelt sympathy for Kasav; and by beating up, incarcerating, humiliating, killing, and abusing in the most foul language saffron-clad sadhus and known Hindu leaders. This had worked so well for Mulayam, Lalu, and Mayavati in the past, who followed exactly the same strategy to succeed in the Hindi belt that has a heavy concentration of Muslims. A similar electoral arithmetic has been working so well in Assam for the party.
The Amul baby needs to earn his political legitimacy by winning at least one state election for his party, and UP is his best bet.
Why did Mayavati deny Ramdev permission to hold his fast in NOIDA? She is on to what the Congress party is up to. Mulayam Singh also knows it, but is helpless. He is a spent force as Muslims abandoned him in the last elections and gravitated towards the Congress. He is useless for them. The BJP has already given up on UP, and is concentrating on Karnataka, and thus everyone who does not want Mayavati to return to power will veer towards the other credible alternative, the Congress. What Congress needs is a vertical division of Muslim votes, with complete marginalisation of Mulayam.
This game plan of the ruling party can only come a cropper if the BJP, Ramdev, and the entire Sangh Parivar prepare to wage an extremely bitter and probably a bloody ‘fight to the finish’ battle in UP. And this will call for a strategy to polarise Hindu votes in the UP elections once again. Can they do it? Do they have the stomach to do it? Can Ramdev do it? I don’t think so. None of them want to go to jail, neither Advani nor Jaitly nor Sushma Swaraj. These heavyweights are not ready to lose their extra flab at this stage of their political career. Ramdev certainly cannot do it, not at the cost of his personal empire. He is also an unreliable idiot and will soon fritter away the advantage he gained after the gruesome and highhanded police action at the Ramleela ground. He has serious intellectual limitations and the people around him are not competent enough to carry out a well-thought-out long or short-term plan and strategy to sustain a credible mass movement.
On the other hand, Hazare has rootless and media-savvy individuals like Agnivesh, Kiran Bedi, and Kejariwal with him. He cannot even gather a group of a thousand supporters to stand by him. Their strategy will be to stay engaged with the government to gain legitimacy as important social activists and ‘civil society’ representatives. What is this ‘civil society’ thing they have been parroting about? Who are we? Uncivil society or what? One cannot understand their aversion to the Opposition politicians. If you can interact with the government, why should you not interact with the Opposition?
Why is talking and writing to Pranav Mukherji all right? Why is it wrong to talk and write to Jaitley for support? Why should you not talk to the RSS and seek its support for your important cause? You cannot do it just because a rabid media-created secularist like Swami Agnivesh has climbed on to your bandwagon and started certifying the secular credentials of those who are part of the movement. It means you won’t be talking to Narendra Modi either.
You want to ascertain Ramdev’s secular credentials now, the guy who has brought you into national prominence. He allowed you to share his platform without asking your credentials. Don’t you have a sense of gratitude? It was Ramdev who had started the original agitation against corruption in a rally at Ramleela grounds. You used his platform and are now taking ‘a holier than thou’ stance. Be conscientious. Hazare should not forget that he once touched Ramdev’s feet and sought his blessings.
As far as the crowds at his Jantar Mantar’s ‘fast unto death’ were concerned, they largely consisted of Sangh Parivar activists. In this country, no non-Congress political or social group has the capacity to launch a strong and widespread social movement without the support of the Sangh Parivar. The Congress party knows it. It knows who sustained the JP movement for two years and during the dark days of internal emergency. It was the Sangh Parivar, and JP knew his movement would have become a big zero without that crucial support. If Hazare and Ramdev expect to make a difference to the polity of this nation, they also need the Sangh Parivar. Even the BJP is nothing without the Sangh Parivar.
Suppose Hindu votes in UP are not polarised and the Congress wins there, do you think it will really bother about inconsequential ‘electorally zero civil society heroes’ like Hazare, Kejariwal, Kiran Bedi, and Agnivesh? It won’t. With the Muslim vote bank back in its fold, it will get more belligerent and callous than what it is today. All opposition will be crushed, and the Congress party will rule the destiny of our great Nation through a sham democracy for the next hundred years, turning it into an undeclared colony of the western powers.
So, all those who love this country and want it to be corruption-free, as a truly democratic state, must concentrate on the battleground UP, and make sure the Congress does not win there.
In my view, the only way to achieve this noble objective is to unite Hindus. The secularists as well as the nationalists should bury their differences to come together to achieve this end. When I say Hindu votes, I am talking about those who belong to this country and share its history and culture, while following their unique religious, social, and professional persuasions.
It is time for the saffron camp to pitch all its tents in UP now, and stay put there, educating every son and daughter of Bharat Mata about what actually is going on. It should not back out from provoking Mayavati and the Congress even if it invites extreme and barbaric police action. They should talk about national solidarity to fight monsters of corruption and save UP and India by jettisoning Mayavati out of office, and sending the Congress back to the dustbin of the state’s electoral history. The path is difficult, perilous, but certainly not impossible.
The BJP should join the fight too if it has the guts and also the wisdom to comprehend that its ‘mock’ protests before a President who is a Congress stooge cannot fool anyone any more.
RKS
