The resignation of Arvinder Singh Lovely from the presidency of the Delhi Unit of the Congress is indicative of the ideological churn underway in the party at present. The party’s stalwarts who represent the grassroots culture of the party in the national capital have been sidelined for imports like Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj. These candidates in no way represent the ideological mainstream and have been imposed on the party workers in the hope that they would revive electoral fortunes. Lovely is neither the first nor the last to express his disgust at such a fundamental compromise. One needs only to look at the political backgrounds of, both, Udit Raj and Kanhaiya Kumar to understand how distant they are from what Congress used to be at one time. They will certainly not take the party in the direction required to take on the BJP.
The Congress national leadership’s calculation probably is that the tie-up with AAP will lead to transfer of votes and the ‘radicalism’ as well as ‘anti-Hindu’ approach of the inductees would be the icing on the cake. It’s a desperate gamble that, even if successful in some way, will not bring Congress back to a dominant position, nor offer any kind of alternative to the politics of BJP or AAP. What it will do is reinforce its image as subscribing to an increasingly radical leftist ideology that syncs very little with the present day Indian.
This has not happened by accident as becomes obvious from the kind of promises made in the Congress manifesto. Party leader Rahul Gandhi’s speeches reflect this severe tilt towards radical social and economic policies. People may find it strange that such an approach has been adopted but, it seems, the party’s ideologues have worked out that this is the only space available. It is based on, primarily, consolidating what is considered the solid anti-BJP vote base – the Muslims. The entire foundation of the INDI Alliance has been structured around this assumption. In Delhi, these voters are in quite large numbers and it is hoped that the naturally discontented will be attracted with the Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj kind of rhetoric that raises ‘historical injustices’ against the ‘oppressed’ classes. If this continues into future Congress governance with the caste census and identification of certain sections as India’s ‘exploiters’, any hopes of emerging as a developing society will be buried. Lovely is just one among those who have realised this truth.
