A rueful Namasthe.

The 146 days Bharath Jodo Yathra which covered 3500
kilometres ended today with Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge hosting
national flag in Srinagar. Rahul Gandhi started Bharath Jodo Yathra movement on
07 September 2022 from Kanyakumari. Bharath Jodo Yathra was intended to create
awareness among people about “fear, bigotry, prejudice, the economics of
livelihood destruction, increasing unemployment and growing inequality. 



The overwhelming response from  public made Congress plan Bharath Jodo
Yathra-2 from Porbandar, Gujarat on October 2, which will end in Twang,
Arunachal Pradesh. Bharath Jodo Yathra-2 will 
cover Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and West Bengal. Congress is
planning political movement in February called “Hath se hath jodo”. Under Hath
Se Hath Jodo campaign, Congress workers will go to every booth in their
respective constituency to spread their message. The party aims to keep public
contact till 2024 Lok sabha election.



Why did Rahul Gandhi and Congress organise this Yathra?



Congress lost its credibility during UPA II due to wide
spread corruption. After the defeat in 2014 general election, the 137 year old
party shrinked like never before and is struggling for survival. People forgot
that Congress was founded for and was successful in ending British rule in
India.



Rahul Gandhi who entered politics in May 2004 by contesting
in Lok Sabha election from Amethi (his father’s former constituency) in UP was
least prepared to lead Congress. Soon Rahul Gandhi got the mock-name ‘Pappu’
(immature). In the last eight years, Rahul Gandhi improved a lot in his
appearance, gestures and presentation skills. Yet, Rahul Gandhi lags far behind
prime minister Modi and other BJP leaders. So the Bharath Jodo Yathra and Hath
se hath jodo are an image make over for both Congress and Rahul Gandhi.



There is no doubt Rahul Gandhi will do well if he becomes
the elected prime minister of India. Media and the people who once blamed Modi
as hard-core communalist are now praising his charisma, dedication and
patriotism. Similarly, those who mocked Rahul Gandhi as Pappu will soon say
that he is a great leader.



Prime minister Modi and BJP leaders targeting Gandhi family
is not appropriate. Congress leaders from across India accepted Gandhi family
for their sacrifice. Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi sacrificed their life for
the country. In Italy, they marry someone and move on, if the husband dies
early. But Sonia Gandhi stayed back and didn’t go to Italy after Rajeev
Gandhi’s assassination. She dedicated her life for India and Indian National
Congress. Calling Rahul Gandhi a dynast is absurd. There is nothing wrong in children
aspiring to be what their parents were. Below is a picture of several BJP
dynasts, if Rahul Gandhi is one.






Why should people join hands with Congress (Hath se hath
jodo)?



We as citizens of this country want the best. And the best
cannot be delivered by continued BJP rule with feeble opposition. We should
choose alternate government to get the best out of election that takes place
once in five years. We don’t want continued BJP rule for another fifty years to
realise that it is second version of what Congress did when they were in power
for more than fifty years in independent India.



Intolerance, cow vigilantism, atrocities on Dalits,
oppression of farmers, increasing number of rapes and government protecting
rapists, price rise, unemployment are some of the problems the present union
government failed to address in the last eight years. The fifth largest economy
is not stable. Poor are becoming poorer in fifth largest economy. The gap
between the rich and the poor is widening with each passing year. India ranks
142 in the world in GNP per capita. Our leaders always choose GDP as a factor
to measure the economic condition. GDP is not the right yardstick to measure
actual living condition of the people. And if you were to consider it as one,
then the below picture which is based on world Bank data says that there wasn’t
any significant change in GDP growth since 1990.



Not just the GDP, the figures are not looking great even
when it comes to unemployment.



Below is the picture based on unemployment data from world
Bank where we can see the trend since 1991.



Recently, the union government banned the controversial BBC
documentary; India: The Modi question, using emergency powers under the IT
rules (2021). The union government blamed the film a “propaganda piece that
lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset”. The ban made many screen
this documentary in various venues. Thus, more people have watched it in India
due to the ban



I haven’t watched the documentary. But I am sure that there
isn’t anything in that documentary about Gujarat riot which is unknown to
Indians. From 2002, all the way till 2014, the mainstream media in India
covered everything related to 2002 Gujarat riot in detail. Back then the BJP
had no control over media.



BBC was after a sensational story and choose Indian one
because people in India are more emotional than others. There wouldn’t be much
to discuss for audience in India and abroad, if they were to choose topic like
racial discrimination in UK or in USA, or the gun violence in USA, or the
ongoing war in Ukraine.



The government could be right in saying that the documentary
can mislead gullible Muslim youths in the country and can lead to violence. It
is needless to say that the Gujarat riot was spontaneous. Both state and union
government can be held responsible only for not controlling the situation
quickly. Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lasker-e-Toiba are the kind of people who show
such videos over and over to brain wash the Muslim youths.



So, we actually shouldn’t have problem with union government
banning BBC documentary. But the real problem is that the government wants to
control media in India. The corporate bosses are extremely happy with union
government. And they own the large share in mainstream media. For example;
CNN-news 18, CNBC-TV18, Firstpost belongs to Network 18 media conglomerate and
is owned by Reliance Industries. The times group is owned by the Sahu Jain
family. And Adani group now holds 37.5% share in NDTV.



Gold smuggling is an example of government creating scope
for illicit trade which helps many to create black money. India is the world’s
second largest gold market with nearly a thousand tonnes of gold imported every
year. At least one fifth of the nation’s annual demand is met illegally. Gold
smuggling ended in 1990 after gold control act was abolished. The union
government increased import duty on gold gradually from 2.1% in 2012 to 15% in
2022. The government says that the high customs duty imposed is to avoid
current account deficit, which actually doesn’t make much sense. Ten years
(2012 to 2022) could have been used to find an alternate way to increase
India’s export to achieve trade balance. But the media in India are supposed to
say that the government is doing great and should blame the gold business and
current account deficit.



NDA government failed to deliver on promises made during
2014 general election. The union government promised hundred smart cities.
After eight years, they are struggling to maintain existing six major cities in
India. A good rain can make Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai sink for
several days which disrupts normalcy.


Demonetization was intended to curb black
money and counterfeit currency. It turned out to be a big economic blunder.
Counterfeit currency and black money continue to erode Indian economy
unabated. The government did least to stop the ways through which the black
money is created and used in India. All the efforts of union government to end
black money was just an eyewash.



By large India remains corrupt though no big scam was
reported in the last eight years. Corruption exists in India like how it used
to be since independence. One of the reason for BJP’s victory in 2014 general
election was Anna Hazare’s  ‘India
against corruption movement’. Union government did least to end corruption that
exists in every government institution. Instead, they bargain with corrupt
bureaucracy to be loyal to BJP. Hence, we see many of them parroting
patriotism.



Former chief justice of India, Dipak Mishra was in news for
wrong reasons. His chief justiceship reduced institution’s reputation to a new
low. One can say that those five charges against him for which opposition led by
Congress demanded impeachment as politically motivated. But we cannot say that
four senior most judges were wrong (Justice Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi,
Madam B Lokur and Kurian Joseph) in protesting against Dipak Mishra for
bypassing established procedures for assigning cases to benches. These four
judges were part of the supreme court collegium, the highest decision making
administrative body in the judicial system. They also challenged new memorandum
of procedures, guidelines that guard the appointment of judges to the Supreme
court and High courts.

Dipak Mishra protected Allahabad High court judge Narayan
Shukla. Narayan Shukla allegedly took bribe to deliver a favourable judgement
to Lucknow based Prasad education trust, which runs a medical College. Depak
Mishra the master of the roster, moved medical College bribery scam from
justice Chelameswar’s court to his own in November 2017.



Dipak Mishra also disposed the case relating to mysterious
death of special CBI court judge, justice Loya without issuing notice or
pleadings. Justice Loya was handling a case related to fake encounter in which
home minister Amit Shah was the accused. The Caravan magazine reported that justice Loya was said to have denied a bribe of 100
crores. Later, the article was removed from The Caravan magazine. It could be the same 100 crores and threat to life, that made judiciary
ignore the mysterious death of justice Loya and the case against fake encounters.
Justice Loya could have been alive, if BJP didn’t win 2014 general election.
There could have been a case or probe into his death, if BJP didn’t win general
election again in 2019.



It was shocking to read the news in The New Indian Express about Kerala High court judges accepting kickbacks through
lawyers for favourable verdicts. The report states lawyer Saiby Jose Kidangoor
collects huge sums of money from clients by taking the names of judges like
justice PV Kunhikrishnan, Justice A Muhamed Mustaque and justice Ziyad Rahman A
A of the Kerala High court.



There can’t be a worst nightmare than judiciary being
corrupt. In India,  police and the entire
bureaucracy is corrupt, where bribe is accepted for just doing their job as
well as for allowing to bend and break the law. The government officials will
proactively display a “for-sale” board on their forehead due to greed and not
out of fear. This makes it a ‘law and order of convenience'.  And this corrupt system will not allow anyone
sincere to survive in government institutions. The union government is beneficiary
of this corrupt system and did least bothered to fix it. This is why people
need to elect alternate government in every election.



The above facts tells us that what BJP government did in the
eight years is no better than the previous government. We shouldn’t  fall prey for appeasement politics. Prime
minister Modi washed legs of five Dalits (Safayi-Karmachari) and honoured them
by wrapping white shawl around their shoulder, days before 2019 general
election. BJP said that it is part of Hindu culture and it is just a ritual.
Prime minister Modi did nothing much to improve the living condition of Dalits.
We don’t want our prime minister washing the legs of few Dalits again, with a
dozen cameras capturing every moment of it to be aired on national news
channels. Dalits and their leaders take pride in prime minister washing the
legs of people from their community.



Atrocities on Dalits were on a rise since Modi became prime
minister in 2014. This is because all BJP leaders are true believers of
Hinduism, which includes Manusmriti and Caste system associated with it. They
often decide right and wrong based on the caste and not the reality. On the
other hand, Congress with secular values treat each individual based on their
capacity and will ridicule values like caste and religion while deciding right
and wrong. A fine balance between what these two national parties do is what we
can call ideal. In fact, Congress used to glorify western culture until rallies
in nineties which garnered huge support for BJP from Hindus. This is another
reason why people should elect alternate government in each election.



On 13 January 2023, prime minister Modi welcomed foreign
tourists as he flagged off cruise MV Gange Vilas. Prime minister Modi also had
a message for foreigners. Travellers from all over the world are taking out
their frustration of not being able to travel during pandemic. We see few
tourists from Europe, Australia, USA and UK here and there in India.



India has huge potential to attract tourists from across the
globe. The mesmerizing beauty of nature in Kashmir, northeast and Kerala, the
monuments in Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Goa the party hub in India can have
thousands visiting India every day. Unfortunately, in the west they consider
India as an unsafe place to travel. It is due to security concerns, the result
of above said corruption. Certain statements of Indian leaders will make us
think that India and western countries are one and the same in twenty-first
century. Unfortunately they consider India, Morocco and Somalia as one and the
same. America warns their citizens not to visit several parts of India due to
crime and terrorism. US says not to visit 17 states in India. The United States
travel advisory states; rape as one of the fastest growing crimes in India.
India just cannot change its global reputation with the existing law and order
of convenience.



Shah Rukh Khan said that he was ill treated in United States
because of his name Khan. There were instances of Indian delegates being
subjected to pat down search in United States. Americans don’t hate Indians.
They are very much concerned about the safety and security of their people. And
they doubt any documents issued by government of India. This is because of what
we do in India with our laws.



We may soon loose some of our out-sourcing business due to
corruption and lack of law enforcement in India. According to a data released
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), illegal call centres and phishing
gangs who run romance related fraud and fake tech support has caused losses of
$3 billion to senior citizens living in the United States in the last one year.
The overall fraud cases have caused losses amounting close to $10 billion in
the last 11 months alone. This is an increase of 47% when compared to data from
2021. This is an issue from across the globe which FBI has got to deal with.
This bad repute can make a serious dent on our IT and allied services whose
clients are from US, UK, Australia and Canada.



Amazon has its largest facility with highest number of
employees in Hyderabad, India. Same is the story of several other major tech
companies. People in America, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada are used to
speaking to Indians when they call their banks and for technical support. So,
they can be taken for a damn ride by fraudsters from India.



All major tech companies are firing thousands of employees
due to the ongoing economic slowdown. Lack of law enforcement in India and our
recent foreign policy changes can impact our outsourcing business.  India is one among the BRICS nation along
with China and Russia looking for a common currency other than US dollar for
international trade. US and its western allies are engaged in a proxy war with
Russia in Ukraine as their sanctions didn’t work. US wants to fight with China
over Taiwan straight in 2025. It is needless to say that China, Russia and North
Korea will always stand together against USA. China defeating USA will not be
good for India, Japan, south Korea and Taiwan. Replacing US dollar with a
common currency for international trade is a direct threat to US economy and
it’s hegemony.



In US, they pay social security for those unemployed and
will collect 25% tax on those employed. So a change in existing order of things
can lead to a situation where all this business may leave India. They will
gradually move out to their respective countries or to a nation which comes up
with more reliable and secure atmosphere. 



Let’s remember Mahathma Gandhiji, on his 75th martyred day
and pledge to make India better for everyone who co-exists and for the next
generation. 



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