@incindia @bewithrg @narendramodi @bjp4india – Indian Democracy Without an Opposition Party Will Flounder. The #Congress Party Must Quickly Get Its Act Together – by Shantonu Sen

AT THE STARTING POINT BOTH NATIONAL PARTIES

Both the National parties are poised to take off. The difference is one party is raring to go and the other one wishes itself some where else. The BJP cannot wait. It has taken over the reins of government after a superbly executed election campaign which was crowned by a star-spangled oath taking ceremony on 26th of May 2014. Under the canopy of the blue skies with twilight still a hour away Narendra Damodardas Modi , a picture of cofidence, the face of resurgent India walked in minutes from the oath taking ceremony fashionably attired in a kurta , full sleeved , jacket, churidar pajama and his favourite sandals and read out his oath to a thunderous acclaimation. The entire ceremony was as glittering as awe inspiring. Over 5000 people , Heads of State, Diplomats, Indian and foreign VVIPS, our own VIPS, Saints Commoners all had gathered in the fore court of Rashtrapati Bhawan . It was a first in many ways after Independence, replicating a regal setting in a democratic era matching any thing that the Mughal era or the Durbar era may have ordered. Now Modi Sarkar is ready to fetch the many stars it has promised to those that have voted the BJP to power as well as to the two thirds of India that has not voted for the BJPThe ten years of UPA has given the country many goodies and, in the last two years , horrors.Inflation, price rise, dollar pinning the rupee and corruption, the spectrum, the coal blocks, the CWG plus a Vice President unwilling and unfit to lead the Congress. The good things are the Right To Information Act, Right To Education, The Right to Food, the NREGA , The MREGA. Many economist including those who are neutral have testified that NREGA and MREGA have infused confidence and then desires, aspirations , specially among the youth have followed. The Rights that have been bestowed have empowered the power starved, the power hungry. India was a land of petitioners . They are transformed. The new generation has many many aspirations. They include, certainly, one third of our voters who decided that time for change had arrived. They also decided that party who responded to their petitions was not the party to fulfil their aspirations. The BJP and Modi was their choice and the BJP and Modi are now at the centre stage with promises to fulfil.

The aspirations of people grow with time. The Congress and its allies had given the country the highest rate of growth in its first eight years . Its last two years have been, admittedly, a disaster. Policy paralysis, crony capitalism big and small corruption and moronic leadership reduced this , great Party to a also ran one. Though two thirds of India had no faith in the BJP delivering on its promises they also did not hope any thing good would come by voting in the Congress Party and its allies. The horror of its last two years reign is vivid. This grand old party , even in the eyes of its votaries has an incapacitated leadership. The BJP leadership reaped rich dividends of the whirl wind that hit India and has now to deliver. Its pay back time for the BJP.

The Congress Party cannot mope. Its on the ropes, true, but it has to bounce back for the sake of democracy. There is two thirds of India that has not voted for the the BJP and the NDA. That voter has split the country. As a National Party , the Congress Party with the help of its allies has to work and toil to to garner support from the two third who do not think BJP and its allies will deliver . They remain ” petitioners” and BJP is not their talisman The aspirants , the one third, voted them in.

Aspirations and desires , often, have no foundation. Narendra Damordas Modi’s endeavours to fulfil his supporters aspirations will demand much of him . But he will give his best as only he can . The Congress is down for the count. It appears too dazed to realize that it was its governance that provided the ground for the aspirations. It has to think why it offerred nothing to those who had aspirations. Its campaign replete with what it had done minus what it will do destroyed it for those that aspired. When it is up on its feet it needs to take stock. Leadership crisis looms large. No one has gone to the drawing board. Its in ample display that the Congress is not even at the starting point to claw back people’s confidence. Winston Churchill was shocked when he got the boot in the elections that followed his war victories in the Second World War. He was offerred retirement honours by His Majesty. He refused . With bull dog tenacity he took to the opposition ledership’s role and the Labour Party had to eat a humble pie in the General Election that came next. The Congress Party has to find its bulldog. They have found its female version, one is often told . She needs to be elected and then with a shadow cabinet of her own puncture Modi’s cabinet. India can only be better off if its democracy is in full play with two leaders at the helm of either party locking horns for India’s sake, not theirs.