Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 27: The Congress is battered from both the ends. While the BJP campaigning for its alleged “minority appeasement policies” alienating the majority Hindu votes from the Grand Old Party, the Muslim leaders in the Congress are unhappy with the party for not doing enough for the minorities.
Chinks in the Congress armour came out in the open on Saturday when the Maharashtra Congress leader Muhammad Arif “Naseem” Khan stepped down from the party’s campaign committee and said he would take no further part in the Congress activities in protest against the party’s failure to ensure at least one seat for a Muslim candidate in Maharashtra.
In a letter of resignation to the party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Mr Khan said he was disassociating himself from the party’s campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections because he has no answer to the questions from the Muslim supporters whether the Congress only want Muslim votes but not Muslim candidates. He told Mr Kharge that he won’t campaign for the Lok Sabha elections as the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bloc had not fielded a Muslim candidate.
“From total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, MVA has not nominated a single Muslim candidate in Maharashtra,” the former state minister wrote. Many Muslim organisations, leaders and also party workers from all over Maharashtra were expecting the Congress to nominate at least one candidate from the minority community, but unfortunately this has not happened, he noted.
The 60-year-old politician said all these party leaders and workers were now asking him, “Congress ko Muslim vote chahiye, candidate kyun nahi (Congress wants Muslim votes, but why not candidates.” “Due to all this reasons, I will not be able to face and I have no answers to Muslims (sic),” Mr Khan wrote in the letter.
Mr Khan also said he is also resigning from the Maharashtra Congress Campaign Committee. The Congress is contesting 17 out the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra in alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar). They are constituents of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Arif Khan was in race for a ticket from Mumbai North Central, but the party chose city unit president Varsha Gaikwad for the constituency. He had contested the 2019 assembly elections from Chandivali in Mumbai, where he lost by 409 votes.
Mr Khan said the Congress it seems has deviated from its long-held ideology of inclusivity. The senior Congress leader said he was inundated with calls from organisations representing minorities and party workers from these social groups, asking why the Congress has ignored them while allotting tickets for elections in Maharashtra. “I am unable to face questions of why injustice has been done (to minority groups). The party has deviated from its inclusive ideology and giving representation to all communities,” said a miffed Mr Khan.
Meanwhile, the Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra targeted the BJP government over inflation and called the Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “mehengai” man.
Addressing a Congress rally at Dharampur in Scheduled Tribe reserve Valsad seat in South Gujarat, Ms Vadra also claimed that the ruling BJP’s top leadership may be pretending to be in denial mode now, but the party will change the Constitution if it returns to power. “BJP leaders and candidates are saying that they will change the Constitution. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi is denying it. This is their tactic,” she said.
On Mr Modi’s relentless attack on the Congress over “wealth redistribution,” Ms Gandhi likened him to an uncle who “spouts nonsense in a corner at weddings.”
“One day, if such an ‘Uncle Ji’ starts saying that be careful, if the Congress comes to power, it will steal your jewellery and mangalsutra and give it to someone else. So what would you do after hearing all this… you would only laugh!” Ms Gandhi said.
“Today the prime minister of the country is talking such nonsense to you because he thinks people will take his words seriously given the importance of the post he holds,” she added.
In the past few days, Mr Modi has shifted his line of attack – from dynastic politics and corruption to the Congress’s alleged plan of wealth redistribution and inheritance tax. PM Modi has been claiming in his election rallies that the Congress party would snatch gold ornaments, including ‘mangalsutra’, of women and redistribute them.
“He is now warning people that Congress will enter their houses with an X-ray machine to conduct a search, then snatch your ornaments as well as ‘mangalsutra’ kept in safes and give it away to others. Is that even possible? Is he doing this out of nervousness,” Priyanka Gandhi responded.
On Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had also targeted Modi over his claims saying the Prime Minister was scared and may even shed tears on the stage.
“You have heard the prime minister’s speeches. He is scared. It’s possible that he may shed tears on stage,” Gandhi had said.
The Congress also slammed as “false propaganda” Mr Modi’s ‘snatching quotas’ remarks and alleged that it was the BJP that was against reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the reality was that since 1950, reservation in education and employment has been possible when there have been Congress prime ministers and Congress governments at the helm.
