I.N.D.I.A Ship struggling to sail after Maha Hit

Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao

When a ship that was newly built and going on a maiden voyage, with all the pride and confidence of meeting the challenge, has suddenly hit a rock naturally panic will set in naturally and that is what happened to Titanic ship. We all saw the passengers and staff of Titanic ship finding ways to save them selves not caring for the others, their friends till that moment, on the screen. That is what exactly now happening to the big, proud opposition built political ship I.N.D.I.A, as it has got a Maha hit midway in its journey. Just as in the movie, all on board I.N.D.I.A ship are blaming the captain for that Maha hit and trying to take escape route to save themselves from the mess into which Congress lead. All the statements emanating from the regional party leaders indicate their loss of confidence in the Congress party and its leader, Rahul Gandhi.

“Congress is not capable of leading the alliance” is the first reaction of the TMC, the ruling party of West Bengal and immediately came the response of that party leader and CM of the state Mamata Banerjee offering her willingness to take over the responsibility of ‘drifting ship I.N.D.I.A’ and steady it before it start sinking. That Mamata’s offer was endorsed by senior politician and NCP leader Sharad Pawar signalled what is going in the mind of fellow travellers on board I.N.D.I.A ship. Omar Abdullah, the newly anointed CM of J&K joined the chorus by calling the Congress “to prove its competency to lead the opposition alliance”. The grand old man of Bihar politics and RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav also showed thumps down to Rahul Gandhi leadership. The SP leader Akhilesh Yadav is licking his wound as the UP assembly by-election results went against his party. He accuses the Congress of its failure to transfer its votes to SP candidates unlike his party’s effort earlier in the Lok Sabha election where his party helped Congress to win Amethi and other 5 seats through successful vote transfer.

The regional parties collectively started feeling that Congress is getting the benefit through I.N.D.I.A alliance and they are not being helped by the Grand Old Party. Mamata Banerjee sensed this possibility very early and kept away from accommodating Congress in Bengal. Akhilesh and Yasaswi Yadav also now feel the same now. AAP which requested for few seats in Haryana assembly election as a part of alliance was spurned by Congress as it thought of winning on their own. It lost Haryana and now AAP is against sharing seats in Delhi assembly elections. Shiva Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray has shown his resentment to Congress by approaching the Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis with the request to pursue his demand of Bharat Ratna for Veer Savarkar, at a time when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was lambasting, in Lok Sabha, Savarkar as the villain of nation and friend of colonial British. Barring DMK and its leader Stalin there are none who are for Congress and Rahul in post Maha hit situation. All most all the regional parties currently in I.N.D.I.A were born on anti-Congress ideology and dislodged Congress in their respective states. They know that any little help to re-float the Congress in their states is detrimental to their own political interests. In this situation with Congress/Rahul not willing to leave the stewardship of the I.N.D.I.A ship and drift increasing and direction losing majority of the regional party leaders may prefer to jump from the ship-in-trouble and prefer their own safety.

As politics in post Maharashtra results unfolded the Bihar CM Nitish Kumar must be feeling extremely happy for his timely U turn of  leaving the non-BJP ship, then yet to be named I.N.D.I.A,  and boarding steadily moving NDA. Nitish Kumar’s assessment of amorphous conglomeration I.N.D.I.A not sailing past NDA proved to be right.

Opposition leaders are slowly realising that it is not malfunctioning or hacking of EVMs which are the root cause of their defeat but it is the absence of proper leadership and the tactical mistakes which they made hit them badly in Maharashtra. Having found the fault with the I.N.D.I.A ship will they opt for a change in the seat of captain or abandon the ship allowing that drift and finally sink is what people are eagerly waiting to see.

(Author is retired professor. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author. He can be reached at duggarajusrinivasarao@gmail.com)