Ashwani Kumar had praise for the Prime Minister and others in his resignation speech. Nation never figured
Nothing epitomises Congress's oligarchic culture, hinging on a power cabal that centres in a ‘High Command', than disgraced former Union Minister for law and Justice Ashwani Kumar's parting statement in his own defence while demitting office.
“Whatever the PM and the party High Command thought fit, as a loyal foot soldier, I have done, and I am proud of the fact that I have been a loyal foot soldier of the party”.
There is no word about his loyalty to the nation, which, for patriotic Indians, should have precedence over party, Prime Minister and high command. But not in the Congress's scheme of things, which, in the final reckoning, is a matter of perpetuating the Nehru-Gandhi family's hegemony, and by extension, the lordship of sycophantic courtiers. Mr Kumar, reportedly hand-picked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, referred both to the Prime Minister and the High Command, identified with party president Sonia Gandhi, scion Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra and their clique. Such genuflection evokes the late DK Barooah’s obsequiousness in the mid-1970s, and, in particular, his infamous, “Indira is India and India is Indira” quote.
However, it would be edifying to remember that Barooah, who was Congress president during the Emergency years, 1975-1977, later abandoned the sinking ship for Congress(Urs), formed by renegade Congressman Devaraj Urs. It was renamed Indian Congress(Socialist). The Congress's history, in fact, is one of family loyalties and political survivors, rarely driven by loyalty to the nation. Two stalwarts in the present Congress-led UPA Government — Union Defence Minister AK Antony and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar — also abandoned the Congress and family when their fortunes hit the nadir in the wake of the Emergency. Mr Antony's Congress(A) broke away from the Congress(Urs) in 1982, but merged eventually with the parent party. Mr Pawar, currently Nationalist Congress Party chief, too left the parent Congress.
Mr Digvijaya Singh, whose two consecutive tenures as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, between 1993 and 2003, have been overshadowed by his current role as Mr Rahul Gandhi's most ardent supporter, never tiring of projecting him for the post of future Prime Minister, is now engaged in castigating the Supreme Court for ‘belittling’ the Central Bureau of Investigation by comparing it to a “caged parrot”; and an administrative tribunal bench in Bangalore for terming Intelligence Bureau a “chicken”. Political opponents have reacted by flaying Mr Singh for his comments, against the backdrop of scams, involving UPA leaders and Ministers, as well as its dismal tendency to manipulate investigative agencies. Mr Singh seems to be carrying loyalty to the party and its controllers too far since the nation's interests are paramount. Scams, shoddy conduct of the Commonwealth Games, trading railway appointments for cash and favours, or law Minister influencing the Coalgate report serve to mar the country's image and put off prospective global investors.
The ruling coalition is too thick-skinned to care. Even as Congressmen such as Mr Digvijaya Singh and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari glibly counter every expose and every offensive, the BJP-led NDA scores over the UPA simply because no leader proclaims his loyalty to a particular individual or family. The focus is on the good of the nation, even if the approach of the various constituents differs. A personality cult may have arisen around Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but that owes primarily to the media and opponents turning him into a larger than life figure via sustained demonising over his alleged complicity in the 2002 Godhra riot. His enduring popularity, despite the calumny heaped on him, and third electoral win have enhanced his charisma.
It is edifying to note Mr Modi's statements, in view of frenzied speculation over a Rahul-Modi face-off for the Prime Minister's post in the 2014 general election. He takes pains to assert repeatedly that he remains a humble worker of his party. He never directly declares his candidature, though the media and his baiters choose to read a deeper meaning in his words. Every public interaction or event involving him becomes a high-profile signature jamboree, for reasons best known to those who report them. Rarely has any leader in recent years excited or polarised public sentiments in the manner of Mr Modi, who remains anathema for the secular lobby.
Significantly, while addressing the Indian-American community via video conference, after being denied a US visa recently, Mr Modi gave his definition of secularism as “India first”. Briefly, this is what he had to say:
“Whatever you do, wherever you work, India should be the top priority for all its citizens ...Country is above all religions and ideologies. We might do any work or take any decision, India should be supreme”.
These assertions serve to vest secularism with a more expansive meaning than the motivated interpretation that appears to have equated it exclusively with minorityism, especially Muslim concerns and observance of personal law. It is a case of pitting the nation's interests against narrow political agendas.