In a bizarre turn of events, the Congress party on Thursday decided to do Tiranga (tricolour) yatras and a “selfie with the tricolour” campaign on social media to mark the party’s foundation day on Monday to showcase its version of nationalism.
According to the reports, the AICC has decided to showcase its alleged ‘nationalism’ in the upcoming days and has ordered its state units of the party to observe the party’s foundation day on December 28 through various campaigns including organising ‘Tiranga Yatra’ and running a social media campaign ‘Selfie with Tiranga’.
“Tiranga Yatras and other such innovative campaigns may also be organised following the necessary social distancing protocols. The PCCs are also requested to pay solidarity to our fighting farmers who are sitting in an indefinite protest against the farm laws,” the AICC party added in its diktat.
The Congress party’s latest trope to exhibit its nationalist traits has, however, left the citizens shocked and its workers bewildering. The Congress party’s political stunt to prove its nationalistic identity comes at a time when the party and its leadership has openly batting for anti-nationals and terrorist sympathisers in the country.
Congress open support of terror sympathisers, Urban Naxals
Ever since the Congress party lost political power in 2014, it has been drifting away from nationalistic ideals which have been evident in its stand taken during several controversial events that unfolded in the country in the last six years. In 2016, the Congress party openly sided with the anti-national elements and pro-Pakistan sympathisers who had shouted slogans to break India as they mourned the death of dreaded Islamic terrorists inside the JNU campus.
The Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi with all his excitement was one of the first politicians to reach the JNU campus to express solidarity with these terror sympathisers. However, it did not stop there. It is not unknown anymore that the Congress party and its ecosystem has been extremely vocal against the arrest of far-left terror sympathisers and Urban Naxals, who have been nabbed for their role in instigating Bhima Koregaon violence and for plotting the assassination of the Prime Minister.
The Congress party has also repeatedly politicised matters pertaining to national security in a manner that undermines Indian national interests. From questioning the integrity of Indian Armed Forces during the two anti-terror operations, first during the surgical strikes in 2016 and yet again during the 2019 Balakot airstrikes against terror camps inside Pakistan, the Congress party and its leadership have not missed any opportunity to question the Indian Armed Forces everytime it carries out successful counter-terror operations against the Pakistan-sponspored terrorism.
In the run-up to 2019 elections, the Congress party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi had also resorted to the politicking of national security issues by interfering in the country’s defence procurement. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party’s media ecosystem had peddled several lies on the Rafale deal, inventing a scam to disrupt the critical procurement process. However, the Supreme Court had come to the rescue of the country by rejecting all claims made by the Congress party and its cronies.
The Congress party, even after its humiliating defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections seems to have not learnt its lesson. In August 2019, as the Modi government scrapped the controversial Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir to undo the historical wrong, the Congress party instead of supporting the nationalistic discourse in the J&K, it fuelled pro-Pakistan propaganda by disseminating false narratives against its own government.
And yet again, in the aftermath of the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act that granted persecuted minorities in the three neighbouring Islamic countries, the Congress ecosystem fuelled violent protests across the country. In doing so, it emboldened the anti-national elements in the country to unleash violence on the streets of Delhi, culminating in the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots that killed more than 50 people in the national capital.
Congress party’s love for Communist Party of China:
In May this year, shocking details emerged exposing Congress party’s secret relationship with the Communist Party of China (CPC). As tensions between India and China mounted amidst the killing of 20 Indian soldiers, the Congress party’s intimate links with the CPC had emerged. The Congress party’s kid-glove treatment to China and the soft-condemnation against the Communist nation had raised eyebrows as to know why the principal opposition party has been soft towards the hostile neighbour of the country.
However, it was later disclosed that the close connections between the Congress party and the CPC may be one of the reasons why the principal opposition party had chosen to remain mute in attacking the Chinese and instead unleashing all its attacks against its own government aftermath of clashes alongside the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Ladakh.
One of the main reasons for the silence of the Congress party, perhaps, stems from the 7 August, 2008 agreement between the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress party and the Communist Party of China (CPC).
During UPA1 in 2008, the Congress party and the Communist Party of China (CPC) had signed a deal in Beijing for exchanging high-level information and co-operation between them. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) also provided the two parties with the “opportunity to consult each other on important bilateral, regional and international developments”.
Interestingly, the MoU was signed by the then Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and on the Chinese side, it was signed by none other than Xi Jinping himself, who was then the Chinese vice-president and standing committee member of the CPC’s politburo. The MoU was signed in the presence of his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi.
Not just the MoUs, but the close relationship between the Chinese leadership and the Congress party, especially Rahul Gandhi had also got highlighted just a few years ago during the Doklam stand-off when Rahul Gandhi was caught secretly meeting Chinese officials. The Gandhi-scion, not once but twice, was caught meeting Chinese officials, raising suspicion among the policymakers regarding the intent of his secretive meeting with the Chinese.
The Congress party, despite its open support for forces that seeks to ‘bleed India with a thousand cuts’, has now intends to play its ‘nationalism’ card to convince the voters of the country that they too possess some sort of affinity towards the country.
