Whoever reads the Congress manifesto in its entirety cannot help noticing its wokeness. That the manifesto has elements of wokeness would be an understatement; indeed, it’s rather dribbling with wokeness!
In its Nyay Patra, the Congress promises to conduct a nationwide caste census if it comes back to power. It promises to conduct what it calls a “nationwide Socio-Economic and Caste Census to enumerate the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions”. The manifesto also promises to raise the 50 percent cap on reservations for SC, ST, and OBC, fill all the backlog vacancies in posts reserved for SC, ST, and OBC within one year, enhance institutional credit to people from within the SC and ST communities for starting businesses, purchasing assets, and home building, and expand the scope of the Public Procurement Policy to award more public works contracts to contractors belonging to the SC, and ST communities.
All these promises are listed in the first section of the manifesto itself which is titled “Equity”. The Congress has taken minority appeasement, quota system, and vote bank politics to an altogether new level! Its manifesto doles out numerous freebies to three primary voter bases – minorities, women, and SC/ST/OBCs. It sets a dangerous precedent and is thus proof enough as to why Congress should never be elected to power again. Going by their Nyay Patra, the nation would be mired in an endless cycle of class conflict and strife if these promises are implemented; demolishing meritocracy in every institution by embarking on an unhinged spree of minority and caste-based appeasement is a sure-shot recipe for disaster. It’s pretty simple. If caste-based reservations and reservations for minorities will be irrationally expanded on an ongoing basis, where will the general quota people go? There will be widespread discontent within Bharatiyas belonging to the general quota and they will be penalized for no fault of their own.
Furthermore, experience tells us that reservations are an inadequate way to historically undo the injustices perpetuated by caste-based discrimination. A more appropriate response would have been to focus more on free, inclusive, and quality education for all, irrespective of their caste, creed, religion, etc. But then instead of devoting its imagination and resources to chalking out a solid framework for imparting quality education to all Bhartiyas, the Congress party chooses the shortcut route by announcing freebies based on caste and religion. Such measures will further divide the Hindu society on grounds of caste and provide further impetus to the religious conversion industry.
But that’s the latest woke template imported from the likes of the US and Congress seems to be merely following it. According to this new template, merely providing equal opportunities to historically deprived communities isn’t enough, rather they should be ensured equal outcomes. It essentially means that to provide more opportunities to certain groups, one needs to deliberately discriminate against certain other groups because their forefathers have been oppressors, therefore, they need to pay back for their deeds. It’s akin to saying all 21st-century Brits should be held responsible for Bharat’s colonization centuries ago. Never mind that this ridiculous argument doesn’t even make sense in the Bhartiya context because our history is quite complicated.
We were all colonized by the westerners who misappropriated our varna system to create the obnoxious caste system that is to date being used to divide Bhartiyas and make them fight one another. Also, when we speak of minorities in the Bhartiya context, the history is complex, and pain ridden. Most minorities in Bharat have Hindu roots whose forefathers were brutally tortured, intimated, and forcefully converted to Abrahamic faiths by invaders and colonizers. Thus, simplistic minority appeasement without taking into account the complex history of Bharat doesn’t work in the Bharatiya context.
But that’s what the Congress manifesto seeks to do. Its sole aim seems to be to undo the BJP government’s project of cultural nationalism which has become synonymous with the identity of Bharat. The BJP is the only major political party of Bharat that has made the issue of revival of Bharat’s pre-colonial past and a radical overhauling of what it means to be a Bhartiya a core feature of its vision and policies. That is the main reason why people vote for BJP in such huge numbers. People want employment, jobs, and a good economy yes, but they also seek a sense of deep belonging to the country of their birth, a sense of pride in their Bhartiyata, it acts like a catalyst motivating them to break barriers and achieve new milestones. It’s that intangible quality that cannot be translated into words. By radically overhauling Bharat’s image away from the mold of the colonizer to a self-sufficient, independent nation that takes pride in its Hindu heritage, the BJP has given Bhartiyas that intangible sense of identity. That’s precisely why its popularity has surpassed all records. The Congress should have introspected and being the party that ruled Bharat for most of the time after independence, it should have rather presented the public with a better version of BJP’s cultural nationalism project in its manifesto. That would have perhaps helped its revival. But instead, Congress turns 100 percent woke and anti-Bharat by calling BJP’s project of cultural nationalism communal and bigoted. Instead, it presents the vision of a Bharat in its manifesto that has become terribly outdated, and most Bhartiyas can no longer relate to this Bharat.
The Congress manifesto tries to present a confused mix of Nehruvian socialism, communism, and wokeism to its voters. Its freebie trail and the condescending language in which it talks about guaranteeing jobs to the poor and those with low educational status remind one of the tone of the colonizers. It’s like keeping people in their place, throwing them peanuts so that they are perennially grateful to the “maibaap”. The manifesto lacks any innovation whatsoever, in suggesting a roadmap for solving the unemployment crisis and furthering Bharat’s development. Instead, it looks like a lazy cut-and-paste job from a standard communist manifesto of the 1980s. That’s a major problem with the Congress manifesto. It’s terribly dated; 21st-century Bharat with its rising aspirations and increased geopolitical clout cannot quite relate to such a manifesto.
The sole purpose of the Congress manifesto seems to be undoing everything that the Modi government has done over the past decade. The Congress promises to restore the Soviet-style Planning Commission system. It also pledges to do away with the Agniveer scheme introduced by the BJP government to boost army recruitment. The manifesto talks about restoring the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, granting statehood to Puducherry, amending the sixth schedule of the Constitution to include the tribal areas of Ladakh, and giving Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh. Furthermore, the Nyay Patra says that the party will review and amend the New Educational Policy passed by the BJP government.
The Congress Manifesto has a section called “Defending the Constitution” in which it pretty much spits venom against the BJP government and talks about undoing various policies and laws passed by them. “We promise to de-criminalize the offence of defamation and provide by law a speedy remedy by way of civil damages / We will review the Telecommunications Act 2023 and remove the provisions that restrict freedom of speech and expression and that violate the right to privacy / we promise not to interfere with personal choices of food and dress, to love and marry, and to travel and reside in any part of India. All laws and rules that interfere unreasonably with personal freedoms will be repealed / we reject the ‘one nation one election idea’ and we promise that elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies will be held as and when they are due in accordance with the Constitutions and the traditions of a parliamentary democracy”, says the Congress Manifesto.
In a nutshell, Congress’s Nyay Patra seems to have two main objectives – to undo everything the BJP government has done over the past 10 years of its rule, and to provide a freewheeling ground to anti-Bharat actors and stakeholders of all sorts to collaborate, plot, and orchestrate all sorts of activities that can threaten the unity and integrity of the country. The constant refrain that “we will not interfere in anybody doing anything” seems like giving a free pass to the conversion mafia, missionary ecosystem, and all sorts of radical anti-Bharat and anti-Hindu actors.
In the section of North-East, the Congress emphatically declares that it will remove the present state government in Manipur. The language of the manifesto speaks of sheer autocratic privilege; the Congress still seems to be stuck in a time warp thinking the citizens of Bharat are in awe of the Nehruvian legacy and they can do anything they please as if the country were their private property. But the ground has slipped way beneath the Congress’s feet and the sad thing is it still hasn’t realized that. That’s why the party is still living in some sort of a political eutopia where it thinks that people are going to somehow realize they want the Congress back based on nostalgia. This “Don Quixote chasing the windmills” attitude has prevented Congress from doing any serious self-introspection” and reforming the organization from scratch.
No offense intended but going through the Congress manifesto, one doesn’t quite get the feeling that it’s the manifesto of a major political party of Bharat. It’s full of sloppy and generic statements that give it the impression that it might have been penned down by a research team comprising fresh political science graduates embarking on a creative writing spree rather than professionals with solid political acumen and expertise. What comes out and out is the merger of wokeness and communism. Every section of the manifesto reeks of wokeness. The party devotes a couple of pages to what it calls “equity”.
The Congress tries to desperately present itself as the Bharatiya version of US woke politics by overemphasizing its focus on the development of SC/STs and the religious minorities of Bharat. The BJP has done more for the development of minorities at a ground level than Congress ever had and done so often at the expense of facing criticism from its own core voter base. But the BJP has never tried to package all this woke style like the Congress is trying to do in its manifesto. That’s the difference.
With regard to the LGBTQ + community also, Congress shows itself as the champion of their rights declaring that it will pass a law paving the way for recognition of civil partnerships of the LGBTQ+ community if it comes to power. Again, it’s the Modi government that did all the difficult groundwork for enabling the LGBTQ+ community to live a life of dignity and freedom in Bharat and remove various stigmas surrounding the community. It was during BJP rule that homosexuality was decriminalized and since then, the government has taken many steps to fast-track the inclusion of people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community into the mainstream and remove barriers to their participation in education, employment, etc. But the Congress in its wokeness, seems to have forgotten that.
“We will enact the Rohith Vemula Act to address discrimination faced by students belonging to the backward and oppressed communities in educational institutions / Congress will establish a Diversity Commission that will measure, monitor and promote diversity in public and private employment and education / Congress will ensure that like every citizen, minorities have the freedom of choice of dress, food, language and personal laws” are some of the promises made by Congress under the “Equity” section of their manifesto.
Going by the kind of language the Congress is repeatedly using for minorities, it seems like the party wants to emphasize that minorities should not be bound by the rules of Bharat as other citizens and therefore, they perennially need a set of separate privileges and should be allowed to routinely flout laws because they are minorities. Does that make sense? Not quite, but that’s precisely the woke template for the balkanization of Bharat. Breed so much resentment into certain sections of society by creating this majority/minority rift that the country would always stand on the verge of multiple internal conflicts. That’s precisely why a party like Congress ever coming to power is a grave danger to the very unity and integrity of Bharat. Its sole purpose seems to be capturing power and to do so, it doesn’t mind pitting Bhartiyas against one another by deepening the majority/minority binary.
The Congress also talks about ensuring increased representation of SC/STs and minorities in the legal system, that is while appointing the judges of local courts, high courts, and the Supreme Court. Again, I would emphasize that the Congress manifesto repeats the woke template of US politics which doesn’t mind sacrificing meritocracy at the expense of extreme minority appeasement and vote-bank politics.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, the Congress in its manifesto completely debunks the idea of cultural nationalism developed by the BJP. Bharat’s cultural nationalism, rooted in its pre-colonial Hindu heritage and past, is the key to rebranding Bharat globally and solving many of our issues. But the Congress, in a strange mix of communism and wokeism, denounces that cultural nationalism, thus leaving Bharat in danger of returning to that colonial hangover period if it ever comes back to power. More than anything, it’s the main reason why a party like that I think, should never be voted back to power. It will willingly and happily have Bharat embrace neocolonialism in its worst form.
