He once targeted Congress for corruption, Prashant Bhushan now becomes its poll advisor

According to The Print report, activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan has been meeting with Congress leaders to share his wisdom on the party’s manifesto for the upcoming crucial 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Print states that according to Congress leaders, a group of civil society activists including Prashant Bhushan and Anjali Bhardwaj, met convener of the party’s manifesto committee, Rajeev Gowda, on Tuesday, 20 February. The group also presented a document called ‘Reclaiming the Republic’ to the Congress. The document contains a wide-ranging set of agendas it wants included in the Congress party’s election manifesto.

According to The Print report, one of the suggestions reads, “Prevent rising crimes against religious minorities and disadvantaged castes by creating criminal culpability of public officials with command responsibility, who fail to prevent hate violence (on the lines of the recent Manipur law on lynching, the first in the country).”

Other suggestions made by the delegation includes recommendation for the enactment of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, establishing ‘an independent commission for looking into systemic injustice meted out to innocent Muslims incarcerated for long years under terror laws, and other such injustices‘. There were many other suggestions also.

A Congress leader also accepted that Bhushan and Bharadwaj met with them. On the question of accepting the suggestions, The Print quoted a senior Congress leader saying, “They met us and gave us their suggestions. We have consultations at various levels and everyone is welcome to give their suggestions. The final decision on what will be approved rests with the Congress Working Committee.”

Prashant Bhushan meeting with Congress came as surprise to all those who follow Indian politics closely. In the past, Bhushan had shared acrimonious relation with the Congress party. He attacked the Congress-led UPA government over the 2G and coal ‘scams’. Bhushan also targeted PM Manmohan Singh and UP East Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband, Robert Vadra.

Shekhar Gupta has rightly observed anything is possible in Indian politics. 

Overall, a great decline for Prashant Bhushan. As soon as the news surfaced, people were quick to term him a ‘turncoat’. He was with India Against Corruption (IAC) movement against the UPA government led by Congress. Nowadays, he is advising the same party which was targeted most during the IAC movement. It is being rightly said that there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics. This episode further cements the saying. 

Recently, Bhushan was in news for all the wrong reasons. He shared a news link on Twitter and stated that ‘Pulwama bomber Adil Ahmad Dar’ had become a terrorist because he was beaten by the troops. He went on to add, “It’s imp to understand why so many young men in Kashmir are becoming militants & willing to die. Even US forces couldn’t hold Afghanistan & Iraq after large-scale suicide attacks.” He blatantly blamed the Indian state and the armed forces for this attack. It is shocking that he compared Kashmir to Iraq and Afghanistan. It is undoubtedly difficult for people like Prashant Bhushan to digest this, but Kashmir is an integral part of India. India will do everything that is necessary to weed out the secessionist elements within Kashmir. Just like his companions in the liberal brigade, he also referred to the Jihadi terrorists active in Kashmir as “young men”.

For more details: Prashant Bhushan uses India Today article to blame forces for Pulwama, gets backing by the Congress IT Cell