There is hardly any doubt left in the minds of right-thinking people that we now live in a new political order. We have a new constitution where the will of the majority community is the law and a line has been drawn that no organ of the government can cross, no matter what the text of the original Constitution said. The original concept of the “union of states” is replaced with a unitary government that delegates some administrative functions to the provinces. The blatant misuse of Enforcement Directorate, CBI and income tax department by the government to harass and create fear among opposition is widely and openly used without any fear of court or election commission. Those of us who want to return to a true democratic system where opposition parties rely upon a wide range of constitutional protections, such as the freedoms of association, assembly, rights of minorities and expression, backed by an independent judiciary and an impartial civil service then we have to look for new and bold solutions . Rahul Gandhi through his Nyay Yatra has tried to highlight some of these issues. However, any mention of rights of minorities specially Muslims is completely missing. In order for Rahul to dent not only the BJP poll strategy but also to project a narrative where he has to clearly project the core ideological difference the centrality of commitment to secularism and belief that India is union of states. While BJP believes India is a Nation with one ideology Rahul must stress that India is pluralistic society where the minorities also have rights to observe their religion and culture. Unfortunately Congress the main opposition party has been hesitant to take clear stand in support of minorities fearing the backlash of majority. It has been found lacking in quick response to attack on minorities, and constitution both.
The issues Rahul needs to articulate at various meetings during his Nyay Yatra and in congress manifesto are listed here. The issue of MSP of farmers and its advantage need to be explained to farmers of other states beyond Haryana and Punjab. The ruling of supreme court of electoral bond and Chandigarh mayor election must be exposed as day light theft of peoples choice and opaque system of governance.
The most blatant use of law enforcing agencies to curb any form of opposition to government policies in universities has not been fully exploited by Rahul . The curbing of autonomy in higher education institutions through centralization and appointments of head of these institutions from a particular ideology should have been poll strategy and leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Kanhaiya Kumar should have more dialogue with students and faculty of universities. The appointments from vice-chancellors to teachers are being made from RSS background only. No leader except Rahul Gandhi has the courage to take RSS head on. He must take a bold initiative and tell students about dangers of such education system. The selfie zones created in railway stations and universities are clearly misuse of these institutions as government propaganda.
The misuse of government machinery by the ruling party. The Bharat Sankalp Yatra, will see thousands of government officers deployed to towns and villages across the country over the next two months, tasked with speaking about the BJP’s successes over the past nine years
Regarding issues of minorities the congress party is so much scared of backlash from Hindu voters that it is afraid of talking about even an issue like bulldozer culture, the hijab and love jihad . These issues can be highlighted as a general problem where rule of law is not followed. Then the hate speeches, not a single person has been arrested in congress ruled states over hate speech. The issues of rapes and those of wrestlers where the government has been on the side wrong doers instead of supporting the victims. Same thing happened in BHU . In all these cases the perpetrators are from the ruling party.
One major issue is the coordination among the opposition parties . Nowhere unity is shown by opposition parties over any issue. In fact in elections and even when elections are not being held the opposition parties criticise each other more than criticising the ruling party. At least Rahul should control his party leaders to avoid such confrontation.There has to be give and take with open heart among various leaders. There has been no major agitation where all the opposition parties or at least few opposition parties have combined to raise issue of national importance. Pegasus, Rafael, CAA and NRC , subjugation of authority of opposition ruled states particularly the role of governors are issues that affect all the opposition parties but no concerted effort is made by all opposition parties. Rahul Gandhi can take bold step like her grand Mother Indira Gandhi when she discarded the old congressmen opposing the reform and came up winning. Here Rahul can get rid of all those people in his party who are not staunch supporter of secularism and reform.
ROLE OF MINORITIES
Role of Minorities specially Muslims in any election is very important. However ,because They do not have a leader who is acceptable to all it is difficult to know how they will vote. They are disillusioned with all the parties because none of them takes up their issues seriously. It is important that issue of dehumanization of Muslim and to some extent the Christian community and their freedom of following their religion must be talked now. Muslims have also not been participating actively in issues affecting the common man.
Mukhtar Ahmad is former professor of Electrical Engineering Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh.
