By Avner Pariat
The BJP has been popularizing the slogan ‘Congress Mukht Bharat’ everywhere and at every opportunity. Many people especially on the side of the Congress have reacted towards this with some heat and have devised similar stupid slogans of their own. Once again it has turned into a situation where diametrically opposed sides fling bags full of crap at each other while we the poor and dumb-founded people must look on at the primetime show as it unravels. Like many people all over the country I was offended by the crudeness and violence implied in the slogan. It has become a slogan associated with intolerance and retribution, and is on the face of it, very un-democratic. That is one reading of such phrases anyway. Later on however I began to re-think my earlier stance and today I must say that, I do in fact, favour the idea of a ‘Congress-Free India’! How did this change come about, you might ask? Well, strangely enough, my desire for an India free of the odious Congress is actually borne out of my utter dislike of the odious BJP. Unlike some of my friends who have scribbled op-eds expounding why the BJP will never be able to get rid of the Congress or others who profess to defend Liberalism by defending the Congress, I cannot bring myself to believe this falsity. The truth is the BJP cannot live without the Congress. Plain and simple. They need each other in order to keep swindling the Indian masses.
So while we are gripped by the BJP v/s Congress battles, we fail to realize how badly this country is being sliced up by the powerful and wealthy. These people – who are the single biggest threats to the Indian republic – don’t care about Right or Left wing, they care only about their bottom-line bank balances. If you have trouble believing me, please have a look at the various disclosed campaign funders for both parties and I think you will be rudely surprised. I don’t give two shakes of a rat’s tail whether BJP or Congress come to power, it will mean nothing for you and me except the continued theft from public coffers and the consolidation of oligarchy in this country.
In fact, we need to wholeheartedly encourage the BJP to rid India of the Congress. In the process of pushing the Congress overboard, may they both fall into the ocean! By striking down the INC pillar, may the house of lies come tumbling on them both! The Congress is the Liberalism that we don’t deserve, it is a ‘just enough’ sort of Liberalism. It is not a Progressive platform only a mere mirage in the desert of Indian politics. It is a lie that is being pushed down our throats. Would it not be terrible if after all these years of Congress bashing they somehow ride back into power? But that is exactly what is going to happen eventually. No government can rule without its hiccups and over time even the currently unsinkable INS Modi will be out in the scrap yard. It will be a horrible cyclical farce for the Indian people if these two are continually allowed to perpetuate this scam. Look at the failures of the two-party system in America. Neither party even cares about their demographics anymore. Only the donors are the ones that receive special consideration from both parties. This is terrible. Somehow we have lost the plot to these BJP-INC goons as well. When has the Congress really protested anything that the BJP has done recently? Think about it carefully. Have they staged a walk-out at the passage of any controversial bill? No, they have simply stalled for time, to make themselves appear to be heroes. Did they launch an all-out campaign to quash the Aadhar act? Did they viciously attack the dangerous proposed legislations for the financial sectors like insurance and banking? Not a squeak to my knowledge. So the conclusion that one needs to make is this – Parliament House is a stage and all in it are but players. They perform when it suits the interests of the Ambanis and Adanis of the world.
I appreciate the rants of funny-man Jimmy Dore (he has a Youtube channel if you are interested) who has, since the Trump Presidency, done an unusual thing. Unlike the Corporate Democrat triumvirate of John Oliver, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher, Dore seldom attacks Trump or the Republican Party. Instead he has been consistently and aggressively poking holes in the sides of the Democratic Party. This is not because he is being paid by the Right wingers. He, in fact, supports Bernie Sanders completely and has actively campaigned for him. But over the years he has come to realize that the Republicans are not the problem. Like the BJP isn’t the problem. Right-wingers don’t know how to govern, so why go after them when they expose themselves to be imbeciles on a daily basis? No, the people we should be attacking are the so-called intellectuals and experts of the Liberal nest. Already we can see how ‘acche’ is our ‘din’. How empty the boasts have been, how feeble and vacuous the work! Yoga centres, uncalled-for river linkages, nationalist hysteria – these are the great monuments of the Indian Right wingers. Let them rule and you will see for yourself how impotent they really are. People secretly know inside that these guys are nuts!
It is such a disappointment to have groups like the Congress serve as the foil to the BJP. Take note of how they appear on-screen – cool and calm, positioning themselves as modern, educated and refined adults. Contrasting themselves to their often incoherent, wild-eyed rivals. Even their mannerisms reflect their politics. Which is why a Right winger who acts and looks like a Liberal is usually the most dangerous person in the group. So a Jaitley is much more dangerous than an Adityanath. We need opposition but not like this. We don’t need a “lesser evil”. We deserve a proper opposition that will raise the issues of the people and not of the corporate economists and Big Business. The BJP and Congress are vested interest groups. Two sides of the same coin. And I will repeat it again and again: let us toss this old coin into the water and get new ones.