Readers’ comments: Dynasty politics and infighting have left little hope for a Congress revival

West Bengal in chaos

You have published all the facts about the West Bengal doctors’ strike (Explainer: How the West Bengal doctors strike swelled into a political crisis for Mamata Banerjee). This is an engineered strike to strike Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. This was the same technique used by Indira Gandhi, as a Congress leader, to dismiss Kerala’s first communist government. She instigated the Christian education mafia and the Nair educational mafia. Those ruling at the Centre will twist any and all issues into communal issues and one day, balkanise India.

They did the same thing during anti-Mandal agitations in 1990. The burning of an OBC student with the help of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-run media made it appear as if a forward caste student had immolated himself. What irony! What did these doctors do to save more than 150 children who died of encephalitis at government hospitals in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar? – MR Chandrasekaran

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Patients are dying in hospitals due to the absence of doctors. Is doctors’ prestige more important than the life of a patient? Doctors on strike should be put behind bars. The person who has attacked a particular doctor should be punished, but what is the wisdom behind the shutting up of hospitals and (doctors) not giving treatment to patients? This truly is goondaism (rogue behaviour) on the part of doctors. Poor patients are coming for treatment and doctors are not available! – Kesin Gauhar

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Governor’s rule should immediately be implemented in West Bengal or else people will be killed every single day in political clashes (Submit reports on political violence and doctors’ agitation, Centre tells Mamata Banerjee government). The situation is extremely grim and law and order is completely out of control. – Gobind Sharoff

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Mamta Bannerjee does not believe in democracy. Like the Communist Party of India (Marxist), she believes in violence. Whatever she does she is bound to get defeated in the next assembly election. Fuelled by goondagardi she captured panchayat elections uncontested. But now people are opposing her. Her days are numbered. – Kailash Nath Kapoor

Language wars

Who is she (Mamata Banerjee) to declare this? (‘Those living in Bengal will have to learn to speak in Bengali,’ says CM Mamata Banerjee). From where did she get the idea that while staying in Bengal, everybody should speak Bengali? So if I stay in Kerala, I should know Malayalam. Or if I stayed in Karnataka then I should know Kannada and so on for other states? I have stayed long enough in Bangalore but I do not know Kannada. I have also stayed in other parts of South and West India, but I used English and Hindi.

This lady is trying to create a demarcation between Bengalis and others in this country without knowing anything about other states. I have travelled extensively in every state of our country and I have never found it difficult to interact with people from other states. So, my countrymen, please do not give any weight to any of this lady’s sentences. The literate Bengalis are very accommodating people. – Soumendra Dutta

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This is exactly what the third rate Tamil Nadu politicians are saying to the gullible public to retain their hold on the state. No doubt people must know the vernacular language, but insisting when they are politically threatened, makes one laugh. – Jagannathan Lakshmanan

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The TV shows where guests are invited to share their views should be for the exchange of intelligence not for belligerence over language (Watch: Several guests on an English news channel spoke in Hindi. So another one spoke in Bengali). It is a fact that the so-called English channels often have a conversation in Hindi.

I, personally, do not watch national English channels. I prefer to view to my regional channels in a language I am familiar with and comfortable listening to. When will our English news channels comply with their identity of purveying news in the language they claim to represent? I fully support and respect Garga Chatterji for his principled stand. Hindi is not the default language of our society, at large. Let all shades of language and opinion prevail. India is not like other small nations, it is a nation of many languages and ethnicities. – HN Ramakrishna

The great Congress resignation

Rahul Gandhi and his family are traitors and anti-Hindu (Do Rahul Gandhi and Congress understand why they received a drubbing – and what to do next?). No one was fooled by him going to temples. He has been punished by the Hindus of this country for fooling them. At Rahul Gandhi’s instructions, many said that Muslims have first priority over resources. What happened at Jawaharlal Nehru University is well known. There are a few more instances which I am not narrating.

Let him continue as President and destroy Congress party. His Party created Pakistan and gifted away area as if it was their personal property. The 1984 Sikh riots were Congress’ Jallianwalah Baug. Next time the earth shakes and trees fall, the trees will be the Gandhi family. – Nimish Thakore

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I wonder what would have been the comments of the media if the Congress had won a respectable number of seats. Congress stands for unity and the oneness of India. True, there are black sheep as well. Present day politics is not based on ideology but on money and muscle power. The Bharatiya Janata Party did nothing to alleviate the suffering of people, yet they won this election and one has had to accept it. Let us see how India progresses over the next five years on simple rhetoric. – George Jose

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PV Narasimha Rao had once said that “there was a Congress beyond family”. These were prophetic words. Certain lackeys failed to understand the truth behind these words. Today Congress is in crisis for which Congress itself is responsible. What these people intend to gain by singing the same chorus of their family song, is not hard to understand. They know very well that without this, the Congress cannot live even a day. If they cease doing this, Congress will fall apart.

Today’s Congress is totally different from the Congress of those grand old days when it was the “voice of India” in all respects. Very few people today know about the golden period of Congress when Mahatma Gandhi had just arrived from South Africa and taken over. The RSS was not yet born.

The Congress inherited great legacy and traditions but massive mistakes cost it dearly and it heavily suffered due to these gigantic blunders. Accepting Lord Mountbatten’s plan was one such big blunder. By doing this, Congress ditched Gandhi and betrayed its own philosophy and ideals.

After Gandhiji’s assassination, the party became obsessed with Hindu communalism and left no stone unturned in dubbing and maligning the Hindu people by charging them by all names and thus pampering the Muslims – a policy which resulted in its total rout.

In 1969, Mrs (Indira) Gandhi ensured the defeat of her own Party’s official candidate N Sanjiva Reddy and got VV Giri elected as the President of India. This was the beginning of the end. After this, she almost completely turned into a dictator. Then we saw the Emergency. Mrs Gandhi appointed Chief Ministers as if peons were being appointed.

Had anyone ever heard the names of Anwara Taimur or Abdul Gafoor? These people were appointed CMs of Assam and Bihar in those days.

The Congress of the older days is no more. We know what today’s Congress is all about. To make Sonia (Gandhi) President, they locked Sitaram Kesri in a toilet. This is the way these people behave.
The treatment meted out to PV Narasimha Rao when he died, everybody knows. He was an ex-prime minister who ran a minority govt for a full 5-year term but his body was not allowed inside the All India Congres Committee for public darshan.

Somebody has been Congress President for a continuous 19 years? Just incomprehensible! In the Congress of the glorious past, this cannot even be thought of. The tradition of the Congress used to be to have a new President every year through a grand plenary session. Congress has forgotten its own great traditions. – SR Wakankar

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In my opinion, the National Democratic Alliance will have a smooth sail nationwide, as well as in the parliament, if Rahul Gandhi stays at the helm of the party. If he, on the other hand, Gandhi resigns, there will be more infighting inside the party. That could be the end of the party. Anyway, the BJP and its allies are going to gain from the pathetic situation of the Congress party. This situation is all because of the surrender of the Congress leaders to dynasty politics. A person without political skills is at the helm of the party. Let them pay the price. – Dr George Thoduka

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Congress does not want to understand if their president and his team, is any match to the existing government. The party’s leaders are either involved in some controversy or some of them are happy to run the government at a state level and have no intention of leading at a national level. Especially because a national post is taken as a challenge for the candidature of party president, or the top post. The party was aware that on its own it will not be able to do anything and that various leaders from other parties would never accept Rahul Gandhi as a candidate for the country’s top post.

However, India was also not expected to vote for the party, as the Congress’ choice for Prime Minister was was no match for the present prime minister. The party is in trouble whether Rahul Gandhi continues as party president or decides to quit. It is thus, in Rahul Gandhi’s best interest, that the party concentrate on upcoming state elections and see if some positive result can be achieved. – Rajiv Mehta

Complaints against Pa Ranjit

Pa Ranjit is a half baked guy with zero knowledge about history and psychology (What attack on director Pa Ranjith for remarks on medieval king says about caste in Tamil Nadu today). He is a lad who picks up one-liners and derives some meaning out the world with his deficient brain. World over, if you look at history, kingdoms around the world have exploited women. Importantly, a person who is skilful and useful has always been valued, irrespective of caste and colour.

This is very relevant even in today’s world. Coming to the so-called lower castes that Pa Ranjit talks of, even today it’s a selfish world. Affluent lower caste men just don’t respect their community and continue to demean them. Sensible people will agree that it has always been a divide between haves and have-nots. Pa Ranjit may call it caste system because of his lack of understanding, but this will always be there. – N Raman

Illegal pills in textile factories

It’s not a recent occurrence (In Tamil Nadu, factories are illegally giving women pills to keep them working through period pains). This has been going on for years. Even worse thing happen in textile mills and factories. If possible visit the area around Paladam Taluka and Coimbatore district. All labour union and other welfare bodies are corrupted. Do you think all this happened without their knowledge?

Kindly take this issue to the women’s welfare ministry in Delhi. Smriti Irani is a woman and she will understand the pain they suffered. – AM Jayakumar