Ever since PM Modi came to power in 2014, the Congress party is using all the means at its disposal to mount an opposition to him. In their bid to attack PM Modi and discredit his government, the party has often resorted to ways that run against the interests of the country. Be their stand on Jammu and Kashmir or Citizenship Amendment Act or more recently the farmers’ law, painting the country in a bad light has become the hobbyhorse of the Congress party.
This Congress legacy of ceaselessly defaming India was taken forward by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi when he posted a tweet today, expressing his disapproval of Independence Day celebrations across the country.
“When the poison of hatred is being spread in the country, then what kind of Amrit Mahotsav? What is freedom if it is not for everyone? #Assam” Rahul Gandhi tweeted.
जब देश में नफ़रत का ज़हर फैलाया जा रहा है तो कैसा अमृत महोत्सव?
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 25, 2021
अगर सबके लिए नहीं है तो कैसी आज़ादी? #Assam
India on August 15, 2021, celebrated its 75th Independence day. It was on August 15, 1947, that India became an independent, sovereign, democratic country, which was no longer under the occupation of the British. A slew of events under the banner “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav” are being organised across the nation to mark the 75th year of India’s independence.
But for Rahul Gandhi, the momentous achievement of having completed three-quarters of a century as a thriving, democratic, sovereign country poised to become an economic powerhouse and cultural centre was perhaps not an occasion to be celebrated. Instead of partaking in the Independence Day commemorations, the Gandhi scion used the opportunity to deride India and belittle its achievement.
Gandhi scion refers to the Assam incident to denounce India’s 75th independence day celebrations
The Wayanad MP referred to the recent incident in Assam to assert that it is not an occasion to celebrate the country’s independence. A few days back, videos of the eviction drive carried out by the Assam police to weed out illegals squatting on Indian land had gone viral on the internet. In the video, the illegal sqautters were seen menacingly charging at the police personnel who had gone to vacate the land.
The vicious attack by the illegal squatters was responded to in kind by the Assam police officers. A day after the eviction drive conducted by the administration in Darrang district in Assam turned violent, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma addressed the media to dispel the rumours doing the rounds on the internet. He said that the eviction drive was initiated with an agreed principle that landless will be provided 2 acres each as per land. “Peaceful drive was agreed upon, then who instigated the mob of illegal encroachers,” questioned the CM.
But before Himanta’s press conference, the usual suspects, who would rather have the encroachers and other unlawful immigrants such as Rohingya occupy Indian land, fell over themselves to weave a spurious narrative to demonise the Assam police and paint the aggressors as victims. They launched a concerted attack against the BJP government, alleging that the eviction drive was a bigoted plan by the RSS to evict Muslims by labelling them as Bangladeshis.
This narrative was lapped up by the opposition parties, who treated it as an opportunity to hold Himanta Biswa Sarma’s feet to fire and denigrate the BJP government in the state as ruthless and barbaric. Rahul Gandhi, too, seems to have embraced this line of attack that legitimises the claim of illegal encroachment on Indian land and calls into question the conduct of the police that had gone to reclaim the land that belongs to the country.
In his attempt to tarnish the reputation of PM Modi and the BJP, Rahul Gandhi had no qualms in spewing venom against India. The fact that the police was carrying out an eviction drive against implacably hostile encroachers of Bangladeshi origin had no bearing on the Gandhi scion. Congress and Rahul have long been accused of acting against the interests of the country, and the recent tweet by the Gandhi scion reinforces the notion that their pathological hatred for PM Modi has inevitably morphed into hatred for the country.
Gandhi’s tweet implies that he is in support of the illegal squatters who have unlawfully laid claim to vast tracts of land in Assam. This is pretty much in accordance with the Congress party’s unstated stance, where unlawful occupation is normalised so as to cultivate them as a vote bank. However, this is done at great peril to India’s national security and its independence, which it has strived hard to protect and preserve.
Rahul Gandhi belittles India’s achievement of thriving as a healthy democracy in its 75th year
Surviving the vicissitudes of time and still functioning as an independent country, with a vibrant democracy and healthy institutions is no mean feat. A cursory glance at the countries neighbouring India gives a glimpse into what could have gone wrong in these 75 years and how the institutions and framework designed by the architects of our constitution have helped the country in charting its intended course without going astray.
For a large part of its existence, India’s arch-nemesis and northwest neighbour, Pakistan, has been ruled by a military dictatorship. The assaults inflicted by years of dictatorship has severely undermined the democratic institutions in the country. As a consequence, even though PM Imran Khan is said to be democratically elected but it is widely believed that he is just a figurehead leader of Pakistan and it is the all-powerful Pakistani Army which calls the shot.
Similarly, the situation in Afghanistan is grim. The United States recently pulled out of its two-decade-long effort to establish democracy in the country as the Taliban was making rapid gains in the countryside. Then in a swift and almost bloodless coup, the Taliban stormed into Kabul and staked its claim to power, overthrowing the US-backed Ashraf Ghani government. The situation in Afghanistan continues to remain volatile as Afghans gird themselves for the return of the tyrannical rule of the Taliban that was witnessed during their regime from 1996 to 2001.
These are but two instances when democracies have frittered away gains made by them. Perhaps, the Gandhi scion does not realise the immensity of India’s achievement to continue existing as a functioning democracy. Perhaps, he and his party, Congress, are so desperate to topple PM Modi that they don’t mind India degenerating into Pakistan or even worse, into Afghanistan, if that can help them in their efforts to stall the Modi juggernaut.
