In the recently held elections for the post of President of Indian National Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge, a veteran Congress leader with vast experience in the political life was elected. He is third dalit to occupy this prestigious post. These elections have taken place in the party after nearly 24 years. It is interesting that in India barring the Communist parties,[Read More…]
What can be said about speculations and questions being raised about democratic nature of Mallikarjun Kharge’s election as President of Congress Party? He won 7,897 votes against 1,072 secured by his rival Shashi Tharoor out of 8,969 votes. Of 9,385 votes 416 were declared invalid because of errors such as incorrect marking. Prior to results being officially declared, Kharge’s victory[Read More…]
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a very senior person in the Congress Party. The meeting was arranged with his office and he met me –on time, in a small conference room. With him were two associates. He was gracious and polite and heard me out. I made a few points, he listened attentively, asked some[Read More…]
by Harshavardhan Purandare and Sandeep Pandey The Congress party declared Bharat Chhodo (Quit India) movement against the British regime in 1942. The Congress party is now launching a movement Bharat Jodo (Connecting and Uniting India) against the Modi regime in 2022. Indian people have had a journey of 80 years since Mahatma Gandhi gave that Quit India call to the[Read More…]
Would it be fair to assume that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has embarked on a politically correct path by deciding to undertake his “Bharat Jodo Yatra”? Against endless political problems encountered by Rahul and his party, perhaps it was imperative for him to take such a step. There is no doubt that he has eyes set on forthcoming parliamentary polls.[Read More…]
Indian National Congress (INC), the oldest party of the country is planning a Bharat Jodo Yatra from 7th September, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, a distance of 3500 KM, passing through 12 states and two union territories. The yatra is being undertaken by an electoral outfit, still on 20th August nearly 200 social activists, who generally have no direct interest in[Read More…]
One of the most important initiatives to be taken by any political parties in recent times, the 3570 km. Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, passing through 12 states and 2 union territories and spread over around 5 months, covering on average 22 km. in 6.5 hours every day, has raised high hopes at a time of increasing problems.[Read More…]
Rahul Gandhi’s bold new initiative has the potential to electrify the aggrieved and oppressed masses of India.Provided it is not a rehash of the ‘Karwain Mohabbat’ type march for spreading the gospel of love.In this divided and frustrated country where beneath the surface of patient suffering there is smouldering anger and resentment.From time to time there are explosions of fratricidal[Read More…]
Bharat Jodo Yatra of the Congress Party has become a topic of much discussion in the media. The Congress has announced that it will organise a padyatra (foot march) which will start from Kanyakumari on 7th September and reach Kashmir in 150 days. During the padyatra, a route of about 3500 km will be covered through 12 states and 2[Read More…]
The Congress Party’s ideological steps remind us of a famous saying of Lenin “ One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward’ not in a tactical sense of retreating and advancing with a progressive strategy in a given unfavourable political environment, but retreating in a more consistent manner with blindfolded vision. The present crisis is much bigger for the party than that[Read More…]
Navjot Singh Sidhu has certainly had his way by being selected as the new Punjab Congress president. But his victory certainly doesn’t spell gains for all in the party and Congress itself. Speculations are afloat about intra-party tension still prevalent in state unit of Congress. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh was reportedly opposed to Sidhu being given this charge.[Read More…]
Some observers like us have been saying in the face of much mistrust that without Congress in the team no coalition for a national opposition can really take off.But we too have been shaken by the continued stasis of the party.In states this has led to a strange inertia punctuated by quiet departures from time to time of one or[Read More…]
The cat is out of the bag at last.Kapil Sibal is one of the twenty-three dissidents who wrote a letter to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi pleading for organisational reforms leading to the installation of an elected president in place of one who was alleged to have inherited it.He was indirectly blaming the latter for the poll disasters Congress suffered.He[Read More…]
When the focus of the country’s intellectuals, activists, journalists should be on the immediate challenge before us particularly the issues of agrarian sector and farming communities who have been protesting against the three farm bills, ‘liberals’ and ‘seculars’ seems to have now been obsessed with the Gandhi family. The fulminations of Ram Chandra Guha, an elite brahmanical secularist, against the[Read More…]
The letter writers in the Congress party are nothing but all those who benefited by the Darbari politics of the party. They are comfortable in the current situation and dont want any radical ideological shift of the party. Most of them would be happy with their Rajya Sabha seats or party leaders without taking Modi and RSS head on. This[Read More…]
As the world doing every effort to overcome the Corona virus, in India our political leaders never fail to surprise us that for them ‘power’ is everything. For the ruling party, the best game, in which they seems to be unquestioned champion is ‘how to dislodge’ the opposition governments in the state. Sachin Pilot is out. Prior to him Jyotiraditya[Read More…]
It would be interesting to recall in the context of the current India China relations that Liu Shaoqi’s book How to be a Good Communist was translated into Gujarati in the 1940s by Chandrakant Parikh, a full time CPI worker, in Mumbai. How much history has changed. Gujarat has come to this sad pass politically today. But it had a[Read More…]
Way back in the 1960s and 1970s, noted political scientist Rajni Kothari used to characterise the Indian political system as essentially ‘Congress System’ with ‘one party’ exercising its ‘authoritative’ hegemony, depicting the Congress as the “spokesman of the nation as well as its affirmed agent of criticism and change.” Kothari even predicted that the Congress would likely to be the[Read More…]
Just days ahead of UP assembly elections, speculations of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s ascendance within the party is gaining momentum. So far, the Gandhi scion has delimited role to the family seats (Rae Barelli & Amethi) only. But amid growing urgency of revival, Congress high command is getting impatient with every passing hour. The party which was once recognized as the[Read More…]
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My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
