The 146 days Bharath Jodo Yathra which covered 3500 kilometres ended today with Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge hosting national flag in Srinagar. Rahul Gandhi started Bharath Jodo Yathra movement on
07 September 2022 from Kanyakumari. Bharath Jodo Yathra was intended to create awareness among people about “fear, bigotry, prejudice, the economics of livelihood destruction, increasing unemployment and growing inequality.
The overwhelming response from public made Congress plan Bharath Jodo Yathra-2 from Porbandar, Gujarat on October 2, which will end in Twang, Arunachal Pradesh. Bharath Jodo Yathra-2 will cover Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and West Bengal. Congress is planning political movement in February called “Hath se hath jodo”. Under Hath Se Hath Jodo campaign, Congress workers will go to every booth in their respective constituency to spread their message. The party aims to keep public contact till 2024 Lok sabha election.
Why did Rahul Gandhi and Congress organise this Yathra?
Congress lost its credibility during UPA II due to wide spread corruption. After the defeat in 2014 general election, the 137 year old party shrinked like never before and is struggling for survival. People forgot that Congress was founded for and was successful in ending British rule in India.
Rahul Gandhi who entered politics in May 2004 by contesting in Lok Sabha election from Amethi (his father’s former constituency) in UP was least prepared to lead Congress. Soon Rahul Gandhi got the mock-name ‘Pappu’ (immature). In the last eight years, Rahul Gandhi improved a lot in his appearance, gestures and presentation skills. Yet, Rahul Gandhi lags far behind prime minister Modi and other BJP leaders. So the Bharath Jodo Yathra and Hath se hath jodo are an image make over for both Congress and Rahul Gandhi.
There is no doubt Rahul Gandhi will do well if he becomes the elected prime minister of India. Media and the people who once blamed Modi as hard-core communalist are now praising his charisma, dedication and patriotism. Similarly, those who mocked Rahul Gandhi as Pappu will soon say that he is a great leader.
Prime minister Modi and BJP leaders targeting Gandhi family is not appropriate. Congress leaders from across India accepted Gandhi family for their sacrifice. Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi sacrificed their life for
the country. In Italy, they marry someone and move on, if the husband dies early. But Sonia Gandhi stayed back and didn’t go to Italy after Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination. She dedicated her life for India and Indian National
Congress. Calling Rahul Gandhi a dynast is absurd. There is nothing wrong in children aspiring to be what their parents were. Below is a picture of several BJP dynasts, if Rahul Gandhi is one.
Why should people join hands with Congress (Hath se hath jodo)?
We as citizens of this country want the best. And the best cannot be delivered by continued BJP rule with feeble opposition. We should choose alternate government to get the best out of election that takes place once in five years. We don’t want continued BJP rule for another fifty years to realise that it is second version of what Congress did when they were in power
for more than fifty years in independent India.
Intolerance, cow vigilantism, atrocities on Dalits,
oppression of farmers, increasing number of rapes and government protecting rapists, price rise, unemployment are some of the problems the present union government failed to address in the last eight years.
The fifth largest economy is not stable. Poor are becoming poorer in fifth largest economy. The gap
between the rich and the poor is widening with each passing year. India ranks 142 in the world in GNP per capita. Our leaders always choose GDP as a factor to measure the economic condition. GDP is not the right yardstick to measure actual living condition of the people. And if you were to consider it as one, then the below picture which is based on world Bank data says that there wasn’t any significant change in GDP growth since 1990.
Not just the GDP, the figures are not looking great even
when it comes to unemployment.
Below is the picture based on unemployment data from world Bank where we can see the trend since 1991.
Recently, the union government banned the controversial BBC documentary; India: The Modi question, using emergency powers under the IT rules (2021). The union government blamed the film a “propaganda piece that lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset”. The ban made many screen this documentary in various venues. Thus, more people have watched it in India due to the ban.
I haven’t watched the documentary. But I am sure that there isn’t anything in that documentary about Gujarat riot which is unknown to Indians. From 2002, all the way till 2014, the mainstream media in India covered everything related to 2002 Gujarat riot in detail. Back then the BJP had no control over media.
BBC was after a sensational story and choose Indian one because people in India are more emotional than others. There wouldn’t be much to discuss for audience in India and abroad, if they were to choose topic like racial discrimination in UK or in USA, or the gun violence in USA, or the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The government could be right in saying that the documentary can mislead gullible Muslim youths in the country and can lead to violence. It is needless to say that the Gujarat riot was spontaneous. Both state and union government can be held responsible only for not controlling the situation quickly. Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lasker-e-Toiba are the kind of people who show such videos over and over to brain wash the Muslim youths.
So, we actually shouldn’t have problem with union government banning BBC documentary. But the real problem is that the government wants to control media in India. The corporate bosses are extremely happy with union government. And they own the large share in mainstream media. For example; CNN-news 18, CNBC-TV18, Firstpost belongs to Network 18 media conglomerate and is owned by Reliance Industries. The times group is owned by the Sahu Jain family. And Adani group now holds 37.5% share in NDTV.
Gold smuggling is an example of government creating scope for illicit trade which helps many to create black money. India is the world’s second largest gold market with nearly a thousand tonnes of gold imported every
year. At least one fifth of the nation’s annual demand is met illegally.
Gold smuggling ended in 1990 after gold control act was abolished. The union government increased import duty on gold gradually from 2.1% in 2012 to 15% in 2022. The government says that the high customs duty imposed is to avoid current account deficit, which actually doesn’t make much sense. Ten years (2012 to 2022) could have been used to find an alternate way to increase India’s export to achieve trade balance. But the media in India are supposed to say that the government is doing great and should blame the gold business and current account deficit.
NDA government failed to deliver on promises made during 2014 general election. The union government promised hundred smart cities. After eight years, they are struggling to maintain existing six major cities in
India. A good rain can make Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai sink for several days which disrupts normalcy.
By large India remains corrupt though no big scam was reported in the last eight years. Corruption exists in India like how it used to be since independence. One of the reason for BJP’s victory in 2014 general election was Anna Hazare’s ‘India against corruption movement’. Union government did least to end corruption that exists in every government institution. Instead, they bargain with corrupt bureaucracy to be loyal to BJP. Hence, we see many of them parroting patriotism.
Former chief justice of India, Dipak Mishra was in news for wrong reasons. His chief justiceship reduced institution’s reputation to a new low. One can say that those five charges against him for which opposition led by
Congress demanded impeachment as politically motivated. But we cannot say that four senior most judges were wrong (Justice Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madam B Lokur and Kurian Joseph) in protesting against Dipak Mishra for
bypassing established procedures for assigning cases to benches. These four judges were part of the supreme court collegium, the highest decision making administrative body in the judicial system. They also challenged new memorandum of procedures, guidelines that guard the appointment of judges to the Supreme court and High courts.
Dipak Mishra protected Allahabad High court judge Narayan Shukla. Narayan Shukla allegedly took bribe to deliver a favourable judgement to Lucknow based Prasad education trust, which runs a medical College. Depak Mishra the master of the roster, moved medical College bribery scam from justice Chelameswar’s court to his own in November 2017.
Dipak Mishra also disposed the case relating to mysterious death of special CBI court judge, justice Loya without issuing notice or pleadings. Justice Loya was handling a case related to fake encounter in which home minister Amit Shah was the accused. The Caravan magazine reported that justice Loya was said to have denied a bribe of 100 crores. Later, the article was removed from The Caravan magazine. It could be the same 100 crores and threat to life, that made judiciary ignore the mysterious death of justice Loya and the case against fake encounters.
Justice Loya could have been alive, if BJP didn’t win 2014 general election. There could have been a case or probe into his death, if BJP didn’t win general election again in 2019.
It was shocking to read the news in The New Indian Express about Kerala High court judges accepting kickbacks through lawyers for favourable verdicts. The report states lawyer Saiby Jose Kidangoor collects huge sums of money from clients by taking the names of judges like justice PV Kunhikrishnan, Justice A Muhamed Mustaque and justice Ziyad Rahman A A of the Kerala High court.
There can’t be a worst nightmare than judiciary being corrupt. In India, police and the entire bureaucracy is corrupt, where bribe is accepted for just doing their job as well as for allowing to bend and break the law. The government officials will proactively display a “for-sale” board on their forehead due to greed and not out of fear. This makes it a ‘law and order of convenience’. And this corrupt system will not allow anyone sincere to survive in government institutions. The union government is beneficiary of this corrupt system and did least bothered to fix it. This is why people need to elect alternate government in every election.
The above facts tells us that what BJP government did in the eight years is no better than the previous government. We shouldn’t fall prey for appeasement politics. Prime minister Modi washed legs of five Dalits (Safayi-Karmachari) and honoured them by wrapping white shawl around their shoulder, days before 2019 general election. BJP said that it is part of Hindu culture and it is just a ritual. Prime minister Modi did nothing much to improve the living condition of Dalits.
We don’t want our prime minister washing the legs of few Dalits again, with a dozen cameras capturing every moment of it to be aired on national news channels. Dalits and their leaders take pride in prime minister washing the legs of people from their community.
Atrocities on Dalits were on a rise since Modi became prime minister in 2014. This is because all BJP leaders are true believers of Hinduism, which includes Manusmriti and Caste system associated with it. They often decide right and wrong based on the caste and not the reality. On the other hand, Congress with secular values treat each individual based on their capacity and will ridicule values like caste and religion while deciding right and wrong. A fine balance between what these two national parties do is what we can call ideal. In fact, Congress used to glorify western culture until rallies in nineties which garnered huge support for BJP from Hindus. This is another
reason why people should elect alternate government in each election.
On 13 January 2023, prime minister Modi welcomed foreign tourists as he flagged off cruise MV Gange Vilas. Prime minister Modi also had a message for foreigners. Travellers from all over the world are taking out their frustration of not being able to travel during pandemic. We see few tourists from Europe, Australia, USA and UK here and there in India.
India has huge potential to attract tourists from across the globe. The mesmerizing beauty of nature in Kashmir, northeast and Kerala, the monuments in Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Goa the party hub in India can have thousands visiting India every day.
Unfortunately, in the west they consider India as an unsafe place to travel. It is due to security concerns, the result of above said corruption. Certain statements of Indian leaders will make us think that India and western countries are one and the same in twenty-first century. Unfortunately they consider India, Morocco and Somalia as one and the same. America warns their citizens not to visit several parts of India due to crime and terrorism. US says not to visit 17 states in India. The United States travel advisory states; rape as one of the fastest growing crimes in India. India just cannot change its global reputation with the existing law and order of convenience.
Shah Rukh Khan said that he was ill treated in United States because of his name Khan. There were instances of Indian delegates being subjected to pat down search in United States. Americans don’t hate Indians. They are very much concerned about the safety and security of their people. And they doubt any documents issued by government of India. This is because of what we do in India with our laws.
We may soon loose some of our out-sourcing business due to corruption and lack of law enforcement in India. According to a data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), illegal call centres and phishing
gangs who run romance related fraud and fake tech support has caused losses of $3 billion to senior citizens living in the United States in the last one year.
The overall fraud cases have caused losses amounting close to $10 billion in the last 11 months alone. This is an increase of 47% when compared to data from 2021. This is an issue from across the globe which FBI has got to deal with. This bad repute can make a serious dent on our IT and allied services whose clients are from US, UK, Australia and Canada.
Amazon has its largest facility with highest number of employees in Hyderabad, India. Same is the story of several other major tech companies. People in America, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada are used to speaking to Indians when they call their banks and for technical support. So, they can be taken for a damn ride by fraudsters from India.
All major tech companies are firing thousands of employees due to the ongoing economic slowdown. Lack of law enforcement in India and our recent foreign policy changes can impact our outsourcing business. India is one among the BRICS nation along with China and Russia looking for a common currency other than US dollar for international trade. US and its western allies are engaged in a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine as their sanctions didn’t work. US wants to fight with China over Taiwan straight in 2025. It is needless to say that China, Russia and North Korea will always stand together against USA. China defeating USA will not be good for India, Japan, south Korea and Taiwan. Replacing US dollar with a common currency for international trade is a direct threat to US economy and it’s hegemony.
In US, they pay social security for those unemployed and will collect 25% tax on those employed. So a change in existing order of things can lead to a situation where all this business may leave India. They will gradually move out to their respective countries or to a nation which comes up with more reliable and secure atmosphere.
Let’s remember Mahathma Gandhiji, on his 75th martyred day and pledge to make India better for everyone who co-exists and for the next generation.
