Curious cases of Uttarakhand and Arunanchal Pradesh: The Saga of the breaking up of the Grand old Party
Some three months ago or so, an unprecedented event happened as the Arunachal Government under Nabam Tuki faltered to rebellion within itself. Out of 42 Congress MLAs, 20 rebelled against the CM allegedly because of unfriendly and treacherous attitude of the Tuki camp. This was one of the remarkable political episodes in the recent past which showcased the decreasing strength of the grand old party in its stronghold region and the emergence of the BJP as a major player in the North East. At the same time this also gave us hints on how major rebellions may be brewing up within the Congress. The mainstream media though refused to read into this and dismissed the whole event as a treacherous act of the Centre to employ Governors in States as its agents and to create some sort of instability in those States even in the absence of any empirical evidence and thus endorsed the views of the anti BJP bloc.
What happened in the case of Arrunachal Pradesh was corroborated by another similar and yet unprecedented episode in Uttarakhand even as 9 MLAs rebelled from within the Harish Rawat Government. Since, the Congress had barely managed an electoral majority in the case of Uttarakhand, the aforementioned episode assumes great significance can lead to an immature end of the forgettable term of the Congress Government in Uttarakhand. This time Baba Ramdev became the culprit in the Courts of Indian Media and the INC. He thus, has been already held guilty in media trials for causing the rebellion in the stable Government of Uttarakhand
The case of Uttarakhand seems to be a replica of the Arunachal crisis, the mainstream media has somehow managed to find erroneous explanations of the same and the errors though have been deliberately and successfully made. Below are the main reasons as to why such rebellions have started brewing up within the State Units of the grand old party:
INC: The sinking ship
The INC has a weak and reluctant leadership in the form of Rahul Gandhi who has time and again shown the strength of bringing the grand old party to new lows. For certain unknown reasons, the Congress has shown the intent of continuing with Rahul Gandhi as their Vice President and the face of INC. Given the immaturity and incompetence of Rahul Gandhi in general and his political incompetence in particular, it is not a matter of surprise that the old horses of the Congress seem to be losing faith in their own political outfit. In the last two years, the media has been adamant on making us believe that the Congress has reached its nadir and is only going to revive from here but the actual rock bottom for the INC keeps on getting worse with new lows. As far as the fading of Modi Magic is concerned, even that residuary has benefited the other Pseudo Seculars and the Congress at the most has only been able to play the role of a second fiddle or a supporting party which can play the role of a pawn in Government formation but will never be able to impact Indian Politics directly or substantially. The INC is clearly a sinking ship but the MLAs must have been desirous of a longer career and leaving Congress must have been their only choice.
Personality Worship:
INC is a perfect avenue for you if you happen to be an inheritor of political legacy and you don’t have any ability to put up yourself through any other means but putting up on account of public and tax money. INC thus is a den of inheritors and if you happen to be a first generation politician, INC has nothing on offer.
Moreover, there is no concept of respecting Constitutional values within the INC as was evident from the way Sonia controlled the ex PM Manmohan Singh for it is a party which has one exclusive power centre, i.e. 10 Janpath and which trumps all Constitutional Offices, whether it may be the PMO or the CMOs, the rebellion can be said to be a result of remote controlling or at least an attempt to remote control Arrunachal or Uttarakhand or any other Congress ruled State for that matter from Delhi (10 Janpath) and not allowing it to function the way the State Government would want to.
Conclusion:
The Uttarakhand and the Arunachal episodes are heartening indicators of the Congress losing its presence in its stronghold areas. The mainstream media have keep on fabricating stories and make believe conspiracies as to why the aforementioned episodes actually happened but the reality remains that we are heading towards the burial of a Pseudo Secular outfit and the crisis in State units are mere corroborations of the same.
It also tells us a saga of how the parties need to adapt non-conventional political methods and how local leadership has to be given its own space and freedom. Any attempt to remote control a State Government will only create more Uttarakhand s and Arrunachals.
