- Ponmala
A couple of days before the 36-day agitation of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar was called off, Rahul Gandhi presented an original idea while addressing a high level meeting of the INDIA alliance. He told them they have to think out of the box to come out of the daunting and disheartening situation they find themselves in. Remaining crestfallen is no more an option for the opposition, because that would amount to condemning the nation to doom. It is high time they sprang into action, a kind of action that they have not been used to. He recalled that the Congress Party had been a political outfit until Mahatma landed in India from South Africa in 1927 and transformed it into a popular resistance movement. A similar resistance movement is the need of the hour.
Having as good as captured the three foundational institutions of modern democracy – the election commission, the courts and the investigation agencies – the RSS driven BJP Raj is as entrenched as was the British Raj that Mahatma Gandhi took on. In a scenario where these institutions do the bidding of the Modi government, little room is left for opposition parties to play an effective role in restoring Indian democracy to its pristine glory. How can they when these institutions have encircled them with a menacing ring of fire? All that is left for them to do is to arouse the public, waking them to the reality that the freedom Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom fighters won at a massive price could slip away at any moment. In fact, we would have already lost it if the BJP had secured the two-thirds majority they expected in the last Lok Sabha elections. The man who single-handedly prevented it from happening is Rahul Gandhi, and he achieved it by leading a genuine people’s movement of resistance.
Rahul Gandhi reminded the leaders of the overwhelming public support his Barat Jodo Yatra received. He elaborated: “I tell you, in the near future, even those instruments that used to work will stop working, because the BJP and the RSS are tightening their grip on the Indian State… If political parties can’t function, then what can? Resistance functions… Wherever we resist, it works. I have seen it with my own eyes. I have walked four thousand kilometres across this country… You don’t need a political architecture, you don’t need the bureaucracy, you don’t need the investigation agencies… Please understand, there is so much anger among the people of India that the next election is already over… And from my perspective, I am more than happy to absorb any criticism from any quarter, because, for me, this is a religious duty, this is a spiritual duty, this is no longer politics.” Does he not sound very much like the Mahatma, born to lead a second freedom struggle?
Rahul Gandhi is exhorting the INDIA alliance to tap into the seething anger of the people. Unkept promises, economic distress, crushing taxes, joblessness, the total collapse of the examination system, rampant corruption and the vicious grip of a regressive ideology have brewed that anger. Mahatma Gandhi got a great reception when he landed in India from South Africa. He had the whole nation lined up behind him. By introducing ahimsa into the freedom struggle, he imparted a spiritual dimension to it, one that he had apparently learned from Jesus. The nation looked up to him not only as a beacon of hope, but also as a moral icon. He cut a new path of popular resistance that inspired iconic freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela and social reformers like Martin Luther King Jr. Rahul Gandhi was not that lucky. He was relentlessly ridiculed as a ‘childish blockhead’ by the BJP’s 18 crore members and their servile media. By sheer strength of character, he has waded through all that and thrown a formidable challenge to the ‘invincible’ Modi.
Our nation has suffered moral impoverishment at a much faster rate than it has been crawling out of poverty. The greatest crisis our youth face is the dearth of role models of upright character to look up to. This is true of every arena of life – political, social and religious alike. One wonders if we are back in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah when God could not find even ten upright men in those cities for whose sake He could spare them from destruction by fire. A Rahul Gandhi and a rare group of his ilk stand out as exceptions. Political intrigue and unbridled powerplay have infiltrated even the sanctuaries of spiritual guidance. When justice and rectitude are compromised across the board for personal gain, and even the sacred is co-opted into the machinery of corruption, the foundation of society itself begins to rupture.
You can drag even the Mother of God into corruption by making a fat offering or entering into a quid-for-quo covenant with her. A woman gives testimony that Virgin Mary helped her land a government job after passing a Hindi exam even though she did not know enough HIndi to read the questions. The wife of a very senior politician gives testimony that Virgin Mary helped her son ensure a bright political future by switching sides to the BJP, which leaves no stone unturned to persecute Christians. The Christian hierarchy joins Modi for a Christmas party and chants litany to him in the midst of a Christian pogrom that was being enacted by the RSS in Manipur. A Catholic nun emerges from the party and sings a Magnificat, proclaiming, “Blessed is the Lord who gave me an opportunity to meet Prime Minister Modi face to face!” What a scandalous message they convey!
It is in such a scenario that our youth have taken matters into their hands and pioneered a struggle aimed at reestablishing the rule of law and the reign of moral values. They are becoming role models for their decadent begetters.
