Weak point of Congress party 

Recent commotion on the issue of increasing prices of petrol clearly exposed the weak point of Congress party. I want to share this belief with my readers on this blog. 

This government of UPA has been steadily increasing prices of fuel for last few months. This has made life almost impossible for the common person. Congress party spokesperson kept on justifying the increments giving many excuses and it had become almost certain that this time also prices of fuel should increase. 

Mamata Banergee, chief of T. Congress, an important member of the UPA government, and CM of the W. Bengal government; at this point sternly declared that they are not going to tolerate this price increment and gave an ultimatum. She declared that if prices not stabilized and any more increment cancelled, her party would withdraw their support to the present government. After a careful watch by the MMS cabinet, they realized that this time the warning is true and this woman will definitely do what she is talking. As that became clear the PM of the government came with a statement that some reduction in prices is not impossible. The prices are, stabilized for the time being, and the UPA government got a breather. To pacify the UPA member, a big package of many crores is ready. This has cooled down her but all this exposed the weakness of the Congress party. The weakness gives other members of UPA added strength so that they can blackmail Congress party to get their demands. 

We see that only a genuine threat of destabilizing UPA government works in making these people behave in this way. Earlier to this, I was expecting DMK party to give similar threat to get their members out of the 2G scam, but that did not happen. Karunanidhi showed his helplessness by saying that they are vulnerable if they refuse their support to the UPA. Moreover, after saying this he kept quiet, even though his dear daughter was, locked behind bars. 

My observation of the events tells me that the Congress party high command are using some sort of technique by which they can hold the members of UPA under their hold so firmly that the government shall continue until the end of the tenure of the present Parliament. I know the technique is of blackmailing MPs of the important members of the group. We know that some microphones Congress party’s detectives planted within the finance ministry’s office. This has been the modus operandi of Chidambaram to get the secrets of the members of the group and use that information in the future to blackmail them so that they shall never say no to the Congress party’s demands. Pranab Mukherjee had noticed that and it was big news in those days. Later on, how the matter was hushed up, we have seen. This shows that even a Congress member whom they cannot control, they want to tap so that they can blackmail him when required to get him behave. It appears to me that, all members of UPA being very corrupt to their roots; Congress party has records of all their misgivings and frauds using the microphones and phone tapings. That gives the Congress party strength, on that they are continuing the government. This I say because, the type of commotion we saw during the recent anticorruption movement and in spite of it the government continues, is a wonder. All members including Communist segment are holding their mouth. I expected that at least they will raise their voice to support Anna but they disappointed me. This clearly shows that communist party members are also not clean and they have something that Congress party can use against them if they talk against Congress party’s activities. Another angle pointed to the Black Money Lobby. That explains why the members of UPA are holding their mouth even though Anna’s demands are genuine and absolutely in the interest of the voters. Now we see that Black Money and blackmailing, these are the two tools Congress party uses to hold the members of UPA. Black money to finance the operations and blackmail is the tool. 

However, these two tools do not apply to Mamata Banerjee’s party. Probably because they do not have, black money or anything worthwhile to use against them that can hold her from taking action against the Congress party’s leadership. What was it that kept Mamata from supporting Anna? I was wondering for this question; and got no acceptable answer to that. Apparently, Anna’s demands are such that Mamata should support it, yet that did not happen she kept studied silence. Nevertheless, recent developments cleared my doubts. Mamata had joined the team UPA on a promise that she shall get all the support for whatever she and her party would demand. Her demand, for holding prices of fuels, Congress party blatantly discarded; and it was an infringement of the agreement under which she had joined the UPA. Acceptance of her recent demand gave the UPA government a respite so that they may continue further and complete the tenure of five years. A petrol price was only a decoy though.  

The weak point of Congress party is, to complete all five yeas of tenure at any cost. This is the prestige issue for the Congress party. So far, non-Congress governments have not been able to achieve that feat. Congress party boasts on that. They openly challenge that only they can give a government that can complete the period. Apart from the governments under their majority those they formed by coalition have all successfully held power for all the tenure but governments of other party’s could not do that. They laughed at all those other governments of non-Congress on their failure in completing the period. Now it is a prestige issue for them as the present UPA2 government is likely to fail to accomplish that feat this time. ManMohan Singh has surrendered to Mamata only to keep that record of his party. I see this time he is successful in holding up the government. This realization gives me the idea that this “prestige issue” can be used to make this government do what they are always trying to avoid. Mamata knowing of the weakness used it cleverly this time. 

Recent news says that, they are tapping telephones of Anna team. This they shall use if they get some tangible information worth blackmail against them in the future. We should note that Congress party believes in blackmail and so Anna’s strategy of blackmail worked. 

Surprised? 

Do not surprise, anything can happen in this country.

      I invite you to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

Ashok Kothare’s Blog

You may visit Ideas and tips on any subject for intelligent discussions.