The contradictions of Congress are its identity. The incident in Himachal Pradesh amidst the ongoing assembly elections in two states is an example of this. Himachal Pradesh is situated between the two electoral states of Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana and any news from there definitely impacts the politics of both the states. Then Congress showed its double character to reduce the impact of the general public’s campaign against illegal mosques and illegal immigrants in Himachal.
The assembly elections of two states have reached the last phase. Today i.e. Sunday, September 29, the campaign for 40 seats in the third and last phase of Jammu and Kashmir will stop. Voting will take place on October 1. After this, voting will be held for all 90 seats of Haryana on October 5. The Election Commission had announced elections in both the states simultaneously on August 16.
Thus, it has been one and a half months since the elections were announced. Is any kind of commitment visible from the Congress behind the issues raised by the Congress Party in this one and a half month? Is the Congress party committed to the issues on which big leaders of the Congress, especially its supreme leader Rahul Gandhi, are seeking votes and should the voters of both the states trust it?
These questions are being raised because there are contradictions in the promises of Congress and there is a lack of determination power required to implement them. Congress is not making a single policy promise which it has implemented in any state under its rule. Offering some goods or services for free has its place. All parties make its promises and all parties also implement them. We are talking about big policy promises which will benefit the people of the state and lead to long term development of the state.
Congress is making many such promises in Haryana but has not implemented those promises in the states under its rule. Congress is promising to provide Minimum Support Price i.e. MSP to the hardworking and self-respecting farmers of Haryana. The question is what is new in this? Even now farmers are being given MSP on many crops. But if Congress is trying to say that it will give legal guarantee of MSP, then the question will arise that why has it not given such guarantee to the farmers of Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, where its government is in power? Obviously this promise is going to mislead the farmers. Congress intends to gain power by some means.
Similarly, Congress party is spreading lies on the issue of Agniveer. Every tenth soldier of the Indian Army is from Haryana but what did Congress do for them during its long rule? Did Congress implement ‘One Rank, One Pension’ scheme? When the BJP government was formed at the Center under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi, the scheme of ‘One Rank, One Pension’ was implemented.
Even now BJP has promised that every Agniveer of Haryana will be given a job with pension after leaving the army. But in this matter also, Congress is trying to mislead the youth by spreading lies. Even regarding jobs, Congress’s record is of ‘spend and slip’. On the contrary, the government led by Shri Manohar Lal Khattar provided more than one lakh jobs without any ‘expenditure slip’. Now Congress is promising to provide two lakh jobs in Haryana. But why is it not doing the same work in the states under its rule?
A similar contradiction is visible in the election campaign of BJP in Jammu and Kashmir. There Congress has coordinated with the National Conference of Farooq and Omar Abdullah. But Congress is not clarifying what its stand is on Article 370. National Conference has openly said that it will restore Article 370. He has also written this in his manifesto. But when the manifesto of its ally Congress came, there was no mention of Article 370 anywhere in it. Its leaders are not saying anything about this even during the election campaign. Congress should have clarified its stand on this issue. But if he is silent, then his intention behind this is to give a message to the fundamentalist and separatist elements of Kashmir Valley that he is with this agenda of the National Conference and on the other hand, to give a message to the Hindus of Jammu region that they are with this agenda of the National Conference. Do not agree with the point. This duplicity i.e. hypocracy is the hallmark of Congress politics. She is trying to appease fundamentalists and separatists as well as Hindu voters, which both Hindus and the valley’s majority nationalist Muslims need to be wary of.
This contradiction of Congress is its identity. The incident in Himachal Pradesh amidst the ongoing assembly elections in two states is an example of this. Himachal Pradesh is situated between the two electoral states of Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana and any news from there definitely impacts the politics of both the states. Then Congress showed its double character to reduce the impact of the general public’s campaign against illegal mosques and illegal immigrants in Himachal. Vikramaditya Singh, the number two minister of Congress in the state government, ordered to write the names of shopkeepers on all the food shops on the lines of Uttar Pradesh government. But other Congress leaders immediately opposed it.
It was said that no such decision has been taken and it is also reported that the Congress high command sought a reply from Vikramaditya Singh through KC Venugopal. Is it not clearly visible that on one hand Congress is showing that it is implementing the policies of Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh to please Hindus and on the other hand it is opposing it to give a message to Muslim voters? Are you paying tax? In fact, it has always been the character of Congress that its leaders speak in different languages and think that they will cheat the citizens by doing so. This work of cheating is not happening anymore because in the age of social media, the message is reaching the people instantly. BJP is also exposing these contradictory policies of Congress in real time.
A big contradiction within the Congress is regarding leadership. The elections are almost over and then Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was fielded in the Jammu and Kashmir elections for the first time. In the first two phases, voting took place on 50 seats in the state but Congress did not send Priyanka for campaigning. The question is that when he is a star campaigner and Congress leaders were saying that the entire opposition alliance had benefited from his campaign in the Lok Sabha elections, then why was he not fielded in the state elections? In Haryana too, the nomination process ended on September 12, but after that no program of Priyanka was organized till the end of the month. Obviously there is no coordination between the brothers and sisters in the party. This clearly shows the power struggle within the Congress.
This kind of power struggle is visible in Haryana even before the elections. The conflict of Bhupendra Singh Hooda vs Kumari Selja vs Randeep Surjewala is visible in Haryana from the first day. All the Congress leaders are playing the quiz show of ‘Who will become the Chief Minister’. In this game everyone is busy trying to defeat each other. Kumari Selja comes from Dalit community and as soon as the possibility of her becoming the Chief Minister appeared, Hooda supporters went after her. Caste based comments were made about her, after which she remained sitting at home angry for several days.
With great difficulty, the Congress high command wooed him and brought him into the election campaign. The question is that when such a clash for power is taking place within the party even before the elections, then it can be easily imagined what will happen after the elections. On the other hand, leadership in BJP is already decided. When a few leaders tried to create doubt, Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah immediately made it clear that BJP is contesting the elections on the face of Shri Nayab Singh Saini and after winning, the government will also be formed under his leadership.
BJP is contesting the elections under the command of former Chief Minister and Union Minister Shri Manohar Lal Khattar and his close associate Chief Minister Shri Nayab Singh Saini. There is neither any contradiction in his agenda nor any kind of doubt regarding his leadership. The people of Haryana need to understand this difference. They have to choose between the continuity of the ongoing development work in the state and the anarchy and corruption of the Congress. There should be no doubt that the people of the state will choose political stability and continuation of impressive development.
(The author is a representative of Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang (Golay). Views are personal.)