Even as the entire nation is feverishly praying for the safety of 41 workers stuck inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand, the Congress party was busy using their predicament to attack their political opponent, PM Modi.
The official X account of Congress earlier this morning shared a cartoon showing PM Modi waving a green flag in front of the Silkyara Tunnel. The caption accompanying the cartoon said, “Kuch Camere wagairah lagwayein, toh saaheb ke darshan ho jaayein (Put some cameras, Saheb will visit the tunnel then).”
The tweet exemplifies how Congress is given to exploiting tragedies and unfortunate incidents to further their political objectives and revive electral fortunes. Of late, the party has demonstrated shocking brazenness and eager zeal to politicise incidents and use them to mount an attack against their opponents, most notably PM Modi, who remains a force to reckon with in the Indian political landscape and the leader responsible for enfeebling Congress to its current state.
Earlier last week, the Congress party and its senior leader, Rahul Gandhi, attacked PM Modi over the loss of Indian cricket team in World Cup 2023 finals against Australia. Modi attended the final match, and the Congress party tried implying that India lost because PM Modi was in attendance—another illustration of how the political discourse in the country has descended as Congress desperately tries to combat its inexorable march to oblivion. In addition, this juvenile behaviour is itself an indicator of Congress’ incompetence in governing the country. It shows how Congress is incapable coming to terms with the reality that Australia outplayed India in every department on that day to clinch the finals and how individuals having no connection with sports teams could not be held responsible for the outcome.
Congress has stepped up its attack against PM Modi and the BJP ahead of the Karnataka assembly elections last year. The triumph in the polls seems to have deluded the party in believing that their brand of unapologetic and crass aggression had brought about their victory in the elections, nothwithstanding BJP’s dismal poll management and infighting with the Karnataka state unit. Since then, the party has often brushed aside well-intentioned criticism of its, at times, callous and insensitive take on incidents to attack the ruling dispensation.
The latest cartoon on the Silkyara Tunnel is emblematic of Congress party’s utter disregard for sensitivities and human emotions. Over 41 labourers were braving for their lives inside the Silkyara Tunnel, with hundreds and thousands of people and over a dozen teams deployed by the Centre and Uttarakhand state involved in rescue operations. The Congress party, however, demonstrated that it had no qualms mocking the struggles and travails faced by the labourers stuck for over 17 days inside the tunnel as long as they could attack PM Modi and the Centre.
Unfortunately for the Congress party, the electoral competition in India has long ceased to be a political battle fought with a vision for the betterment of her citizens. It has devolved into a propaganda campaign aimed at restoring the eminence of a single family, even if that means mocking labourers stuck inside a tunnel and fighting for their dear lives. As the efforts to rescue workers reached a crescendo, the Congress party shared the cartoon, not because they were moved by their predicament but because they were worried that a successful rescue operation would mean another feather in cap for the Modi government, which has executed some of the toughest evacuations of its citizens in India’s modern history.
