Under attack in the AgustaWestland helicopter bribery case, the Congress held a protest march in the Capital on Friday in what can best be described as a valiant attempt to deflect attention from the issue of corruption and shift the focus to “people’s issues” like rising prices, the agrarian crisis and the country’s ailing economy.
Billed as a “Save Democracy” rally, Congress members, led by party president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also violated orders to court arrest at Parliament Street. They were detained briefly at the police station and allowed to leave.
The rally was originally planned to protest against the toppling of Congress governments in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh by the ruling BJP but the AgustaWestland case added a fresh dimension to these protests.
The political discourse over the past ten days has been dominated by a high-voltage campaign launched by the BJP against Sonia Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders in connection with corruption charges in the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from an Italian firm.
Vociferous debate
The Rajya Sabha witnessed a noisy debate on the issue on Wednesday while the matter figured in the Lok Sabha on Friday where defence minister Manohar Parrikar charged that the United Progressive Alliance government had “done everything” to help AgustaWestland and warned that the government was determined to track down the beneficiaries of the kickbacks.
“What we could not do in Bofors, may be we will do it in AgustaWestland, “ he told the Lok Sabha. Parrikar refrained from naming Sonia Gandhi but it was evident that he was referring to her involvement in the case.
With the BJP keeping the focus on the helicopter bribery case to ensure that corruption remains centre stage, the Congress leadership attempted to draw attention to the Modi government’s deficiencies and its failure to deliver on its electoral promises.
Although the AgustaWestland case cast a definite shadow over the protest rally, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi made no mention of this matter in their speeches. There was, at best, an oblique reference to this controversy when Sonia Gandhi spoke of the baseless allegations being levelled by the Modi government against leaders of opposition parties.
“Do not try to frighten or defame us... life has taught me to struggle, we have faced a lot of challenges,” Sonia Gandhi declared as a large assembly of slogan-shouting, placard-waving Congress workers cheered her on. "They don’t know what we are made of. No matter what you accuse us of, we will not bow before injustice."
People's issues
Speaking about a gamut of issues, Sonia Gandhi accused the Modi government of toppling democratically elected governments through the use of money and muscle power, describing it as a “murder of democracy”. Bringing back the focus on “people’s issues”, Sonia Gandhi drew attention to the poor plight of farmers, minorities and Dalits, the government’s inability to check inflation and its attempts to divide people on the basis of caste and religion.
Stating that the Modi government has only brought gloom in the two years it has been in power, the Congress president said, “ Farmers, the youth and traders are all feeling troubled. The severe drought in large parts of the country is driving farmers to suicide while poor families are finding it difficult to feed their families because of rising prices.”
Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi also spoke in the same vein as they hit out at the Modi government and declared that it would not succeed in its attempts to deliver a “Congress-mukt Bharat”.
The real issues
Like Sonia Gandhi, the Congress vice president also launched a blistering attack against the Modi government which he charged, is ignoring the real issues facing the people like drought and price rise. “Modiji promised ‘achche din’ and today 40% of the country is reeling under drought while 50 farmers are committing suicide everyday … Latur, Vidharbha, Bundelkhand are burning,” Rahul Gandhi said. "But Modiji has nothing to say about it."
While attempting to change the political narrative, the Congress protest rally was also an effort to energise the party rank and file which has been feeling demoralised after the party’s humiliating defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election the subsequent assembly polls. It was also meant to prepare the workers for the long haul ahead as the BJP is all set to up the ante against the Gandhi family.
After their face-off in Parliament, the battle between the two political rivals will shift outside in the coming days. While the BJP will keep the corruption pot boiling, the Congress will try to highlight issues which show up the Modi government in poor light. Having won the round against the Congress on the issue of nationalism, the BJP is convinced it that the AgustaWestland helicopter bribery case will come in handy to target the Gandhi family and further discredit the Congress.