Deja' Vu (aka the Congress Drama!)

The soft mutiny by Sachin Pilot has taken national media's attention away from China. For now. China will be back soon, and so will the long due conflict with them. But currently the spicy family drama of Congress is unfolding in full public view. The narrative in media and even among some of the BJP supporters is, how Congress is again sticking to Gandhi's and ready to let go of their young talent. On how smug the Gandhis are that even in this day and age, a person like Sachin Pilot who is an MLA and deputy Chief Minister biggest state (in terms of area) of country cannot get their appointment. How Sachin Pilot single-handedly revived Congress in RJ and wrested power from BJP in last assembly elections. And for some reason how Amit Shah and Modi is killing democracy because they are allowing Congress to implode internally! Ok. I am not going to answer the last question. I cannot stoop that low. That's Ramchandra Guha territory.

Congress is not a political party. It was a family business since independence and for last two decade it has become a mafia business. Congressi's have always stuck with Gandhis. Always! Except for communists and Jan Sangh / BJP, pretty much all parties are splinters of Congress. And these off shoots splintered because they challenged Gandhi's. In short, this drama of today is not new. Second, Congress hasn't had young talents in decade now. Sachin Pilot is 42. That's not young by any parameter. Scindia Jr. is 49! Suffice to say, Congress is not letting go of any 'young' talent. Third, Gandhis never grant easy access. The book 'Durbar' by Tavleen Singh tell us how Gandhi's governed their fiefdom through exclusivity of access to them. Whether it's a politician or a businessman or a journalist, you doing things for them will grant you access and that in turn means, you do more things for them. Amazing!  But it worked for last two decades now. It should be a psychology case study.

Lastly, the talk about how Pilot won the elections for Congress in 2018 Rajasthan Assembly elections is unicorns running on rainbows level hallucination. Yes, he did work at grass root level. But For last twenty years Rajasthan have voted alternatively for BJP or Congress. And the voters did this by giving each party an overwhelming majority. The result was like a clock work. Given BJP had won rather massively in 2013, potential for Congress winning in 2018 was quite high regardless. And that's precisely what happened. Congress did not get absolute majority, so, one can argue that the advantage Congress got was because of Sachin Pilot's work. And perhaps, that's true but let's not get carried away here by saying Sachin Pilot revived Congress.

All this brings me to the point that has been bothering me since unfolding of this drama. Pilot isn't waging any holy war against dynasty rule in Congress. He himself is a classic case of a dynasty. His father was a political heavyweight in Congress before losing out to Sonia Gandhi. He doesn't have much presence beyond Rajasthan, as in, he has no national stature. He enjoyed the fruits of sucking up to Gandhis all along. Now that he is unable to cage his ambition of becoming CM of the state, he is revolting. That's the simple reality. Nothing wrong in what he is doing. This is politics after all. But it's jarring to see him getting painted heroic.

I don't know which Pilot will go. He is unlikely to find much warmth in BJP. Scindia's case was different because rest of his family, except for him and his late father, has been backbone of Jan Sangh and BJP. Pilot's not the same case. I say BJP shouldn't take him onboard. RJ will come their way in three years anyway. Why take on a person who may harbor hatred towards Hindutva and towards BJP? Let him set up a regional shop. He will eat into Congress share to begin with.

Congress party is already pretty thin when it comes to state leadership. But rest assured whichever way Pilot decides to chart his way, this kind of drama will repeat in Congress again and again till only three of Gandhis remain in the party. 

The Guns of UP and Woke Liberals

The recent killing of Vikas Dubey - a criminal par excellence, during an encounter has sent India's new age secularists, old fart liberals and Uttar Pradesh's opposition parties into a fit. It's hard to imagine that a person like Vikas Dubey's death can have any voice supporting him. It's time to celebrate actually. He was not just a career criminal but his connections in political parties means he was virtually untouchable from law perspective. So, in his death, why would he find new set of supporters? Especially when his own father is not planning to take his body from cops for last rites.

Let's first draw boundaries for our argument here. I don't plan to write about why SP, BSP or "I am grand daughter of my grand mother" fame madame 420, are saying what they are saying. I am not planning to counter the new age secularists who are suddenly feeling woke to Vikas Dubey's caste.

This brings me to old fart liberals. This specie is unique in every possible sense. They are highly insecure, to be begin with. Their arguments for the sake of liberalism lacks practicality, reality and most importantly, truth of the matter. They want to speak for the rights of perpetrators while happily ignoring rights and feelings of the victims. Though most of these folks are honest fools, in India at least, a good chunk of 'liberal' public figures have put themselves 'On Sale'. These special specie class includes movie celebrities, so called NGO activists, so called journalists and most importantly, lawyers. It's easy to dismiss them as shrill nuisance. But during UPA II era, they have firmly entrenched themselves within judiciary. That's why you see their PILs getting listed in SC pronto. The process that has evolved over last decade is like this -  a controversy is fanned into a national emergency by 'liberal' media. Then right on cue, a 'liberal' lawyer will straight go to Supreme Court of India to file a case. It may be a stay, or a request to transfer case out of said State's jurisdiction or perhaps, to set up a SC monitored investigation. But worse is yet to come. Our honorable Supreme Court actually used to take cognizance of such frivolous matter on urgent basis. For example, Yakub Menon got hearing midnight when lakhs of people don't even get their matter listed in SC for years. Another classic example is Teesta Setalvad getting bail when SC judges decided to hear her plea over PHONE on a weekend!

Coming back to our topic in hand, what all this eco-system had to do with Vikas Dubey? They were all hoping either Vikas Dubey not to get caught ever - thus they will probably go to court to haul UP  govt (read Yogi Adityanath!) in courts and request a court mandated and monitored investigation to look into UP govt. hiding or helping Vikas Dubey. Or if Vikas Dubey is to get caught then first, ensure he gets bail and second, his case gets transferred out of UP so that they can prolong it for decades. In short, Vikas Dubey becomes a stick to needle Yogi Adityanath and BJP constantly. This would be punishment for Yogi ji for ensuring law order remains strong during Shaheen bagh bullshit. These so called liberals managed to execute on this plan by making a massive firestorm controversy over encounter of Prajapati (a known underworld Don) and of Ishrat Jahan (a supposedly innocent girl, happen to be travelling with 5 dreaded LeT islamic terrorists.). Modi and Shah had to face agni-pariksha for executing on their duties for almost a decade. It's an entirely different matter that this ploy, though worked in short term, lead to downfall of the very dynasty that fed them.

One thing these 'liberals' did not take into account in there calculation is the person they are dealing with. Modi-Shah were only CM then. The BJP central leadership wasn't necessarily tuned to the agenda and schemes of these liberals. So, Modi had to fight it alone. In Yogi ji's case not only the central leadership strongly standing behind Yogi ji, the man himself is exceptionally clear in his talks and actions. Just like Modi, Yogi ji has no family to feed and no money to make for anyone. All he is expected to do is the govern the way government is supposed to do.

All the liberals shouting hoarse of death of judiciary because of Vikas Dubey's encounter, never realize that justice was never alive when Vikas Dubey was roaming free. Yogi ji understands this clearly. Perhaps, he could have interrogated if he was to alive. But what happened when a dreaded criminal is arrested in the past? Did it lead to further arrests? Classic case is of Abdul Telgi. (Stamp paper scam) Didn't he testify? Didn't he spilled the beans? Didn't he named the politicians? Did anyone ever got arrested? And, Where is Abdul Telgi?

Indian judiciary is littered with such case. Where convicts never faced prison and people that should be convicted never even got accused. What is one supposed to do under such circumstances? Here we have a dreaded criminal who killed 8 police in cold blood and then cut fingers and head of the constable who lead the police search party. And then there is a whole 'woke' 'liberal' agenda-driven eco-system of Mumbai and Delhi ready and waiting not only to rescue the criminal but then use it to stick it to the govt?

I wish Vikas Dubey was alive in jail. I wish he had confessed for his crimes and named the names. I wish the names were put in jail and put on trial and most importantly, convicted. But till the point such time comes, Vikas Dubey's of this world had to be dealt with per the demands of current circumstances.