Dear RG, Are you serious about India?

The following article was written for Niti Central. Pasting it here for reference

“I hear talk about cleaning of the country. I mean, are we serious?” - Rahul Gandhi

In the viral video where students answer in YES, when Rahul was expecting a NO for his question on whether Swachh Bharat was working, there is one important bit that has escaped attention. At the beginning of this clip, Rahul Gandhi says:

“I hear talk about cleaning of the country. I mean, are we serious?”

On a lighter note, this family seems to be obsessed with the question – “Are you serious?”. Coming back to the point, it is a fact that we are one of the worst when it comes to maintaining clean surroundings. Many of our governments are also quite lethargic when it comes to focusing on cleanliness. Cleaning our country is one of the needs of the hour – a need that was recognized by Prime Minister Modi. So yeah, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, we are serious about cleaning.

It beats the daylights out of me that the Vice President of the Congress party has a serious problem with cleaning our own country – is he worried about the rot in his own backyard ?

Look into the mirror, and ask yourself Mr. Rahul Gandhi – why this willful ignorance to acknowledge and solve problems.

Sonia Gandhi stands up in the Lok Sabha, and says,

“People who never had faith in constitution nor had participated in its drafting, are now swearing by it… having a discussion on commitment to it. There can’t be a bigger joke than this.”

If you take the literal meaning of this, by her own logic, even Sonia Gandhi is not eligible to become a lawmaker of this country. But we all know she meant this metaphorically – which means a TDP, a DMK, a NCP, a AGP, a RJD, a SAD, a BJD, a BSP etc are all not eligible to swear by the constitution because they didn’t participate in its drafting. This kind of menial thought process is perhaps a trademark of the Congress party. Is Sonia Gandhi simply unable to digest the crushing defeat her party got under her leadership? She once called Modi a “maut ka saudagar”. She now does not want to respect the mandate of the people and tells him that his idea of discussing the constitution is a joke.

Mallikarjun Kharge stands up in the Lok Sabha, and warns this country that if any attempt is made to change the constitution, there will be bloodshed. He actually used the word bloodshed in the temple of democracy. It is extremely sad that he can’t be prosecuted because of automatic immunity you gain from talking in the Lok Sabha. The party he represents has amended the constitution more than 100 times. The very first amendment was an attack on free speech. There has been no bloodshed because of these amendments – so why is the party now warning of violence? Not a single question has been directed to Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi on this statement. Not a single op-ed in any newspaper that questions this call for violence, from the very temple of democracy.

Sunday’s newspapers were abuzz with how former PM Manmohan Singh played the mediator between Modi and Sonia. The Hindu’s front page report said that when PM asked the former PM to help, Manmohan Singh said that he doesn’t have much say in the floor strategies of the Congress and he would have to talk to Sonia Gandhi about that. Their treatment of the former PM aside, it is amazing how the media has also given Sonia Gandhi a cakewalk when it comes to floor strategy. She has herself asked her MPs to go into the well of the house to disrupt Lok Sabha. She has herself stormed into the well, to disrupt the Lok Sabha. Is this the kind of leadership we expect from the Congress party? Is this the party that holds the highest number of seats in Rajya Sabha and therefore controls many legislations that need to go through?

All of the above examples raise the following questions –

Why is the Congress so averse to change?

Why should there be no attempt to revisit the Constitution and see how it can be improved upon?

Why should those who were not born in 1950 not hold high office today?

Why should the country not be free of bloodshed?

Why should we not look into the mirror and say – we need to clean the country, so let’s buckle up?

Why should an elected government be held to ransom merely to satisfy the ego of one family?

Where will this status quo attitude of the Congress party lead us to?

It is time we ask these questions and demand answers from the Congress’s first family.