In the last few years, especially after the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress party lost the narrative on Nationalism. Congress could not align itself with the rising wave of nationalism across the world including in India in the last decade. Moreover, its ideological position on National Interest was questioned several times in the last few years because it had no clear stance on several issues like- abolition of Article 370; Surgical strikes of Pakistan; and terrorist attacks by Pakistan.
Therefore, in order to reclaim the Nationalist narrative, the Congress party is planning a grand event to celebrate the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president, has already formed a committee under the leadership of former defence minister A K Antony.
“The Congress President has approved the formation of a committee to plan and coordinate the activities of the Indian National Congress to commemorate the historic 50th anniversary of the Bangladesh Liberation War won in 1971,” said the party in a statement.
The Congress party does have a Nationalist legacy as it was the primary organization to be involved in Nation building. The party has been led by staunch Nationalist leaders till the mid-1990s. But, after Sonia Gandhi took over the party leadership in mid-1998, the party realigned itself to the left to counter BJP.
Sonia Gandhi started Congress’s alliance with Communist parties, which strive for a global alliance of human beings instead of ‘National Interest’.
In 2004, she formed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), an umbrella organization of Centre-left parties to bag the chair of PM for a Congress member.
After the UPA government came to power in 2004, Italian born Sonia Gandhi, who herself could not be Prime Minister, ‘placed’ Manmohan Singh on the prime minister’s chair while the real power was in the hands of specially constituted National Advisory Council (NAC), which was chaired by Mrs Gandhi.
The NAC, an advisory body set up by the UPA government to advise the Prime Minister of India ran a shadow government in the country. The NAC was the brainchild of erstwhile Sonia Gandhi who used the NAC to supersede the decisions taken by Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet. In a nasty show of power and connivance, the NAC rendered Manmohan Singh and the Cabinet powerless.
NAC was filled with anti-National activists like Deep Joshi, Farah Naqvi, Mirai Chatterjee, Virginius Xaxa. The advocates of extreme leftist policies- Harsh Mander, Jean Dreze were also a member of NAC.
Under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party took a leftward turn.
The ‘Nationalist’ leaders of Congress party were sidelined and the power was placed in the hands of non-elected activist type people.
As the party lost the narrative on Nationalism (the most important currency to win elections in the era of hyper-nationalism), its electoral prospects also declined, especially in general elections.
Rahul Gandhi, who often finds Communist party leaders on his both sides (Yechury on one and D Raja on the other), has not been able to counter PM Modi on nationalism, although he succeeded to some extent on economic narratives. Communist parties of India, which are anything but Nationalist, have become a baggage to Congress, but they are only ones who are ready to walk behind Rahul Gandhi.
Congress wants to reclaim the Nationalist legacy with the celebration of the Bangladesh liberation war, but with the incompetent leadership of Rahul Gandhi, success will not come easily.