Give us back our old India of Gandhiji

This is the plea of Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Parliament. It is amusing to listen to this plea because the plea is an appeal to put the clock back. It displays a backward mentality. The world has moved on-progress and development will bring in with it other concomitants which may be harsh but cannot be avoided. Azad must decide to travel in a bullock cart and not go in for high-tech. Along with this plea for the old India one cannot but dissect that everything was not fine and good in the old India. Poverty numbers did not suddenly appear in the last three years. The whole country was steeped in poverty-in communalism in looting. A kind of systematic way of life and of political insulation to the poverty of the people was injected in that old India which Azad now so fervently appeals for. No accountability-raining of scams-looting of the natural resources-grabbing land and keeping the people with empty stomachs and out stretched hands with a begging bowl. This is the picture of old India and this is what Azad seeks. The basic problem is the likes of Azad and the party to which he belonged can never function in a true democracy. It is a dynasty regime they are accustomed to. Hence sitting in the Opposition is not in the DNA of the Congress. A party which does not believe in democracy is not fit to govern and term it democracy.

Yes the old India which Azad and his likes long for have the fundamental characteristics-Raining of scams-extra constitutional power center-a PM which was only a puppet-a regime of looting and easy living- a government which was non- functioning. Azad cannot use the forum of the RS to paint a picture of the charming old world, ‘when Hindus and Muslims gave blood for each other, babies did not get raped’. What the Congress sowed then, we reap now. Is it not logic that nothing sprouts suddenly? The seeds of distrust-the communalism and polarization were all injected into the polity by the Congress. Will Azad place the record of the riots that shook the country during the 55 years of the Congress regime? Will he reel out the poverty figures and convince us of the efforts the Congress government undertook to eradicate poverty. Hence poverty grew in geometrical proportions. Terrorism was abetted right from the days of the Congress. The soft policy towards Pakistan is treason and Azad cannot make the nation believe that the Congress has the sovereignty of the nation as its priority.

A one family rule-a one family became the country’s focus. Except for the garbage pits and the toilets every government structure was named after one family .What did it show-a culture of sycophancy and a crass anti-people attitude. The Congress will never learn or understand that a positive Opposition is needed for democracy to function. It is equally the duty of the Opposition to see that the government functions-that Parliament works. Parliament has to function if government has to function. It cannot hinder and block Parliament to suit its whims and fancies and just to spite the ruling government. This is anti- democratic attitude and anti -people stand.

Today it is easy for the Congress and its leaders to highlight the distress of the farmers and the unemployed. Can the Congress produce its score card on these two fronts? The fact remains that the Congress PMs hardly worked-they took life leisurely starting from Nehru. Manmohan Singh had clearly stated that he was out of the loop and on another occasion admitted that he had not applied his mind. Then what is the role of a PM? The less said of Rajiv Gandhi the better. He used all his gimmicks to topple three governments- Chandrasekaran’s, Dev Gowda’s and Gujral’s. It was simply a play for the Congress. One can notice that the Congress had and has scant respect for Parliament-so it went on blocking Parliament-went on shouting down the government and even formed the ‘shouting brigade’ to shout and drown the voices of the ruling party. It did not allow George Fernandes-the Cabinet Minister for Defense to speak in Parliament. Is this democracy? We had in recent times the ‘darling of the Congress’ according to the puppet Manmohan Singh threatening to reduce the 57 inches chest  of Modi in the Rajya Sabha.So block-everything do not allow the government to function and we must listen to their sentimental appeal for the good old India. This party and its leaders which have not even an iota of understanding of what democracy is and all about. If one is to look into Indira Gandhi’s regime the very fact that she imposed Emergency should be a just case to ban the Congress party. Today Azad talks of freedom of speech, freedom to socialize, freedom to do business. Where did all these freedoms go during the Congress regime? Yes freedom to do business means getting the Italian Quottrrochi to loot the poor of this country. One can go on pinpointing the immense injustices wrought on the nation by the Congress and it is this which Azad wants to bring back. Sentimentality does not work. All that is old is not good and moral and pro-people.

Ghulam Nabi Azad makes a fervent plea for freedom –he was the CM of J&K-why are the Indian citizens restricted from living and doing business in J&K? When he refers to Hindus and Muslims giving blood for each other he forgets or rather wants us to forget the ethnic cleansing undertaken in Kashmir. So why is freedom restricted on the basis of religion? Why is the Congress not accountable for the thousands of Hindus pundits tortured and massacred-why did the ‘old India’ allow the genocide of the Sikhs?Azad has misused the floor of the RS to paint a rosy picture of the Old India but that old India brings blood shed-acute poverty-denial of freedom and an oppression that is covered with the sheen of a dynasty. It was this and more that we Indians saw-suffered-bore patiently and prayed for the New World and at last it came in the form of Modi and his government. And now we realize that we are safe. Every Indian will be protected-our resources will be guarded-corruption will be uprooted and those who sinned against the poor will not be allowed to get away. But we also realize that this means long hard years ahead-Modi has no magic ward and to quote the puppet former PM money does not grow on trees. Employment will not rain from the heavens. It needs planning and hard decisions and co-operation from the Opposition.

These the common people will understand if they are taken in confidence. But the Congress is back at its deceit lying and untruths are being disseminated. A whole gang of former sycophants are at work-every positive step is being hindered and blocked and the Congress which puts itself above the country does not mind if people continue to suffer. One, it wants to get away with its scams-two it wants to continue to loot and three it wants its coterie to be placed in pivot positions-so that the dynasty can be safe guarded. Shame on the Congress which thinks that the ordinary people can be bluffed and taken for a ride-we can be deceived to think that rule of a Family-nay a dynasty is rule of democracy. We the poor realize that we have been cheated even of that one meal a day-the poor farmers know better than others that there is a gestation period to harvest what is sowed. First the land must be cleared-weeded and make fertile only then good seeds can be sowed and then after nurturing these good harvest can be expected. Tell these to the farmers-Remind them their own cycle of sowing and reaping. They will understand that a four year period of Modi and the BJP in power is insufficient to clear-the weeds and the slime and the slush which is so heavy and deep of the 55 years of rot-accumulated have to be cleared. So prodding them to demand employment-to blame the Modi government for their distress is shortsighted and cunning and deceit-and misleading the poor.

It was the need of the day that Modi put the record straight in Parliament and said all that he had said. For one thing it was the Opposition which asked for it.Azad wanted the old India of Gandhi. So should we not recollect what that old India was? Should we not realize that Gandhiji himself wanted the Congress party to be disbanded? The younger generation must know the history of those times. Rahul Gandhi has absolutely no sense of history and his mother still worse. Both are only draft readers and depend on the backroom boys for slogans and content. They are the oppressors and hence their vision is from the apex of the pyramid-belonging to this 2 percent of the population. And everything in that old India was structured and attuned to serve their interests-not of the nation’s. All this must go into the record and Modi did well in using the floor of Parliament to revisit that old India which he was compelled to. His critics may criticize him but then truth cannot be buried for long. History must record what an ordinary chaiwala’s perception of the old India was and is because it will be the true perspective of the millions of India who are at the bottom of the pyramid. Critics forget that the present of any political party cannot be disassociated with the party’s past. These links in a chain-its parampara-it displays its culture and exposes its roots. It is the ‘baggage’ which it carries-so to fault Modi for delving into the past instead of dwelling only on the present state of affairs is like wanting to look at a dissected piece of the body and not the whole body.

Well done Prime Minister-my salutations to you. We will die in peace as long as we have a PM as you who puts the country before self and party. We bow our heads to you because you are a sign and symbol of true democracy. You had no coronation-you were not hoisted up but you worked up-you made democracy vibrant and meaningful. You proved that India will shine as long as there are people like you to uphold truth and fight for it. You have at last given India democracy. May your tribe increase.

Dr Mrs Hilda Raja-Vadodara