![]() But there was no firm police action to make it clear to the protesting hoodlums that their nonsense would not be tolerated. The Chief Minister tweeted weakly about his commitment to the rule of law. Not only was this not done, there was the recent incident of film personality Naseeruddin Shah being prevented from participating in the Ajmer Literature Festival. Following up on the prosecution of lynchers would have sent a clear message to those who indulged in murder under previous ruling regimes. But there seems to be no effort (at least not in public view) or intention to implement the rule of law in dealing with vigilante rowdyism. After managing to secure power in three Hindi heartland states, one would have hoped that the new broom would sweep clean. Four recent incidents highlight its continued bumbling and raise serious doubts in the mind of the swing voter about the capabilities of this party to govern the country for the next five years. ![]() The electorate rightly banished it to the boondocks for eight years, till its return in 2004.īut this blog is not about the past it is about how the Congress party refuses to learn from its past mistakes. It then provided oxygen to a weakened BJP by opening the locks of the Ram Temple, followed by a spell of masterly inaction when the Babri Masjid was being demolished. It forfeited the support of the Sikhs after the storming of the Golden Temple and the pogrom of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and alienated moderate Muslims with its anti-woman stance in the Shah Bano case. Catering to what it thought were specific constituencies, the Congress played with fire and, as expected, sustained severe burns. Let us start with its missteps in Punjab in the late 1970s/early 1980s, followed by the Shah Bano-Ram Janmabhoomi fiascos of the 1980s. ![]() In trying to be all things to all people, the Congress has been withering away, in the best traditions of Marx’s Communist state. But what, even for true-blue liberals, is not so forgettable are the errors of commission and omission over the last forty years, which have landed the country in crisis after crisis. We may pass over the apparent errors of India’s first Prime Minister, including his neglect of primary education and agriculture and his obsession with the public sector, not to mention his disastrous tryst with the Chinese, relying on incompetent advisers. I know it has become a pastime, especially among those sympathetic to or following the present ruling dispensation, to lay the blame for all India’s ills at the door of the Indian National Congress and its presiding deities, the Nehru-Gandhi family. ![]()
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