Congress “adrift,” Punjab CM Contradicts Rahul Gandhi’s Views on Revamping Jallianwala Bagh

Manas Dasgupta

EW DELHI, Aug 31: While most of the Congress leaders and many of the other opposition parties stood with the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in criticising revamping of the historical Jallianwala Bagh massacre site in Amritsar, the Congress chief minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh took a different stand describing the renovation “a nice work.”

In an apparent disagreement and defiance of his own party leader, Singh, who attended the inauguration of the renovated historical memorial of British savagery 102 years ago, with the prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, said to him the Bagh now looked “very nice.”

His comments came within hours of Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday condemned the central government’s initiative to revamp the monument twitting in Hindi that “Such an insult to the martyrs of Jallianwala Bagh can only be done by those who do not know the meaning of martyrdom. I am the son of a martyr – I will not tolerate the insult of martyrs at any cost, We are against this indecent cruelty.”

But Singh when asked by the media persons, termed the government’s revamp move “very nice. I don’t know what has been removed. To me it looks very nice,” Singh said. He said it must serve as a reminder for future generations about the right of people to peaceful democratic protest.

Several other Congress leaders, including the party’s deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, also tweeted on the Jallianwala Bagh memorial issue. Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill alleged the BJP-led Central government’s project of giving a makeover to the “Jallianwala passage is not to preserve but erase the marks of atrocities committed by General Dyer during British rule. Central vistafication of Jallianwala Bagh passage is the ultimate insult to those killed on that fatal day! Shame,” he said.

Gogoi tweeted that such pomp reduces the gravity and horror of the Jallianwala Bagh memorial to “base entertainment. Call me a traditional Indian but I am not a fan of installing disco lights on institutions of importance and dignity,” he said.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal also lashed out at the government and said the government has “created an event out of a tragedy. BJP not only erased all traces of the massacre by revamping Jallianwala Bagh, but added insult to injury by celebrating with sound&light show!” the Congress leader tweeted.

Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi slammed the government for the renovations and said the revamp was damaging “our collective history.”

CPM leader Sitaram Yechury also criticised the move. “Only those who stayed away from the epic freedom struggle can scandalise this.” “Insulting our martyrs. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre of Hindus Muslims Sikhs who gathered together for Baisakhi galvanised our freedom struggle. Every brick here permeated the horror of British rule. Only those who stayed away from the epic freedom struggle can scandalise thus,” Yechury tweeted.

The renovation of Jallianwala Bagh, where more than 1,000 people died 102 years ago, has come under fire, with not just politicians but also historians accusing the planners of ‘Disneyfying’ the monument.

Indian historian S. Irfan Habib said the revamp of the historical monument is “corporatisation” of monuments and asked the government to look after them without meddling with the “flavours of the periods these memorials represent.”

Even the British historian Kim A Wagner, who has written a book titled “Jallianwala Bagh,” analysing various aspects of the massacre, described the renovation of the memorial to mean “that the last traces of the event have effectively been erased”.

Wagner’s post was also re-tweeted by British Member of Parliament Preet Kaur Gill, who wrote, “Our history- being erased! Why?”

The Punjab chief minister’s comments in support of the BJP government and virtually defying his own party’s stand is being viewed as increasing reduction of Rahul Gandhi’s weightage in the party. Only recently, the party high command had appointed Singh bête noir Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Punjab Congress president despite the chief minister’s opposition. Though the party has ruled out change of leadership till the assembly elections a few months away, Singh apparently has not taken appointment of Sidhu, who has continued to criticize the chief minister, kindly.

Similarly in Chhattisgarh, where Rahul Gandhi was believed to be favouring rotational system of leadership believed to ad been agreed upon at the time of the last elections in 2018, the chief minister Bhupesh Baghel refused to bow out and announced on his return in Raipur that there would be no change of leadership. The situation in Rajasthan is still simmering and the dissidents have been forced to lie low because of the ill-health of the chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

A section of the Congress leadership also draws a line between Rahul and his mother and the party interim president Sonia Gandhi. Not only within the party, Sonia Gandhi had commanded more respectability even from the opposition leaders, particularly the biggest critic of the Congress, the prime minister Narendra Modi. There never was an attempt on the part of the BJP leadership, including Modi himself, or the Aam Aadmi Party leadership to trash what Sonia Gandhi said. This is different from their approach in responding to remarks or allegations levelled by Rahul Gandhi as the BJP leadership particularly pounce on him whatever comments he made on any relevant issue.

Apparently a sense is emerging among the Congress leaders that Rahul Gandhi was not making the desired impact on the BJP and other rivals. Most vocal of them has been Shashi Tharoor,  who recently blamed the indecision by Rahul Gandhi about his return in the role of Congress president for the growing perception that the party is “adrift”.

Tharoor called for an “active and full-time” Congress president. Rahul Gandhi sent an impression of a “not active” president during his brief tenure as party chief. Sonia Gandhi returned as a “stop-gap arrangement” in the Congress president’s role when Rahul Gandhi quit following the defeat of the party in 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Some other top party leaders, including Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Sandeep Dikshit, have echoed the sentiments expressed by Tharoor on different occasions. The latest to join the bandwagon was Manish Tewari who asserted that Sonia Gandhi would be the best person in the Congress to head the party at this point of time. “There is an overwhelming consensus in the Congress that we need Sonia [Gandhi] as president for the foreseeable future,” Tewari said.