Editor,
The nation has been informed in clear terms that message has come from Bengal that the Congress would not cross the tally of 40 in the next Lok Sabha polls.
So, on the one hand, there is constant character assassination of Bengal, Mamata Banerjee and the TMC with a liberal deluge of derogatory terms like ‘Kangal Bangal’, ‘Didi O Didi’, ‘corrupt’, and ‘pishi-bhaipo family trade’, to mention a few, and on the other hand, there is prompt exploitation of a stray comment of the Bengal chief minister, which she made out of her frustration with bete noire Adhir Chowdhury – the chief of the state Congress unit.
The speaker concerned should make up his mind with regard to Bengal and Mamata Banerjee – whether to constantly belittle the state and its leader, or to draw inspiration from the impeccable secular ethos of the state and the unquestionable personal honesty and simplicity of its chief minister. Just to reap cheap electoral dividends, one can’t have the cake and eat it too.
And Rahul Gandhi is such a ‘non-starter’ indeed that it seems like the who’s who of the BJP/NDA government have turned Rahul-bashing as its only mission. If it is so dismissive of the ‘Pappu’, why does it relentlessly track every movement, action and comment of the latter and religiously belittle him? Why doesn’t it dare to ignore such a ‘non-starter’, instead of getting startled at the mere mention of Rahul or the surname Gandhi only?
However, the BJP government is absolutely right when it asserts that the Congress has become outdated in its thoughts. If constitutional ethos of secularism and call of love, affection, compassion, brotherhood, equality, and democracy have turned outdated in this multi-religious country with religious muscle-flexing and spine-chilling hatred calling the last shot in every field along with cold-blooded demolition of all norms of diversity through invocation and/or practical implementation of communally divisive issues (Ayodhya, Gyanvapi, Mathura, Islamophobia NRC-CAA UCC, to mention a few), isn’t it natural that the thoughts of the Congress would also turn outdated?
No wonder that the forces of sanity today get mocked as ‘sickular’, ‘urban Naxal’, and antinationals here. And the heroes and patriots are those who compel vulnerable persons to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or beat alleged cow/beef transporters to death.
Would the self-proclaimed guardians and well-wishers of India ensure that those who unhesitatingly take the law in their own hands in the name of Ram and ‘gomata’ get exemplary punishment for their fatal antics? Else it would be proved that not the constitutional values of secularism (as regularly get stressed by the Congress), but rather rabid, muscular Hindutva reigns supreme in this ‘Ram Rajya’.
Kajal Chatterjee,
D-2/403,
Peerless Nagar,
Kolkata