What the BJP has wanted to do across the country and what its leader Nitin Gadkari recently said, with regard to the rejuvenation of the Congress for a vibrant opposition, is mere doublespeak. The words do not match the party’s action which has been vehemently working for ‘Congress mukt Bharat,’ paving a way for the single-party dominance over the political landscape of the country. The BJP has been acting tough against the opposition, and it has succeeded in ensuring that the country does not have a solid opposition, letting the Government do as it pleases—in most cases.
It is the BJP that has been working for ensuring that it does not face any major opposition as has been seen in the elections in Uttar Pradesh while it has been projecting the first Prime Minister of Independent India as a demon, responsible for all the major issues which the country faces currently. In a way, BJP has been projecting itself as a saviour while the Congress in particular has been painted in a bad colour, always.
The slogan of ‘Congress mukt Bharat’ and the rejuvenation of the Congress do not go well and uncovers the BJP’s fear of being overrun by the regional parties that have started to hold and gain ground across India. Taking the example of what happened in Punjab—not only Congress, but even the BJP was nowhere in the picture as the election results were announced. No matter the PM—after knowing that they had lost from Punjab—said that they will do everything possible to put in place a strong party in the state, the after-effects of the entire scenario that emerged, talks of BJP’s insecurity, very well projected in the remarks of Nitin Gadkari who in a way has accepted that regional parties could be more destructive than Congress.
What is interesting here to note is that BJP might have—to a certain degree—decoded the Congress which once was the biggest party pan India and perhaps know how to counter and contain the party, and literally has got nothing to counter the parties such as AAP and Trinamool which currently rule Bengal and Punjab.
By talking of rejuvenating Congress, Nitin Gadkari who has an association with the RSS, the BJP might be eyeing to have a political enemy, an opposition in the shape of Congress, all open, known and decoded—easy to handle and counter, rather than facing the parties such as AAP and Trinamool. That way, the BJP would do itself some face saving, but putting up a rant of paving the way, working for India to have an opposition, to say the least.
