BJP looks like the Congress of yore
The more Bharatiya Janata Party has mainstreamed in Indian politics, the more Congress has pushed itself into a Left-like corner
As one Congress leader after another switches to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP looks more and more like the Congress party. One joke on Twitter said the BJP could also be called the Congress Alumni Cell.
The BJP looks like the Congress of yore in many ways. Dominant, mainstream, a big umbrella that can contain contradictions, a personality cult leader whose face the public trusts, a party that owns multiple narratives of nationalism, religion, caste and progress. Of course there’s a big difference in ideology over secularism, but you could say, like Congress leader Kamal Nath does, that it was Rajiv Gandhi who started the Mandir-isation of Indian politics.
If the BJP looks like the Congress, what does the Congress look like? Today’s Indian National Congress reminds you of the Communist parties.
Disdain for big business
Like the Communist parties, known in India as the Left parties with a capital L, the Congress today shows a disdain for business and industry. It is one thing to attack the government over crony capitalism, as indeed the BJP used to attack the Congress on the same count until 2014. But surely the lack of any engagement with big business does not make sense for a major political party in a fast-growing economy like India.
Ignoring urban India
India is a country fast urbanising — faster than official data reflects. The urban poor and their issues are an obvious opportunity that the Congress misses. Even though the Congress did surprisingly well in urban India in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it has completely ceded the urban to the BJP. This process started in Gujarat, where you can’t even find a Congress worker in many urban polling booths. Now the Congress’ urban apathy is spreading to other cities.
No vision for development
The Congress party emphasises welfarism, because the poor must be given a leg up. But there’s no economic or developmental vision to differentiate itself from the BJP. The BJP has co-opted welfarism too.
How do we boost manufacturing in India to create jobs? How do we use new arenas like AI for India’s progress? How do we turbocharge public transport in a country full of traffic jams? You won’t hear such ideas coming from the Congress party, because like the Communists
it has only one idea: uplifting the poor.
Shunning responsibility
Rahul Gandhi has consistently shunned responsibility — refusing to take ministerial roles in UPA, refusing to become party president forever, resigning from the post after losing an election, appointing a non-Gandhi party president just while still being de facto president. Power and responsibility go hand in hand. Those who don’t want responsibility don’t get power.