Congress high on rhetoric, low on action against farm laws

Congress-ruled states such as Rajasthan, Punjab and Chhattisgarh may have passed the bills to counter farm laws enacted by the Centre, but the grand old party seems to have forgotten the countrywide dharna agitation that it had planned some time back.

 In fact, Congress strategists had planned massive agitation against the farm laws, atrocities on Dalits and women. As per the plan, the party had planned countrywide dharna on 31 October. But former party chief Rahul Gandhi went to Himachal Pradesh for vacation. The party too did not hold any protest or dharna as planned. A couple of states only went through the motion of holding dharna on that day. Now, 5 November is approaching when the Congress has planned a protest against allegedly rising cases of atrocities on Dalits and women. But in view of what is going on it is clear that Congress will hardly run any campaign on that day also.  

In fact, it all started with the Congress strategists having goofed up while making the plan. On the one hand, the agitation was planned quite late when the momentum subsided. On the other hand, dates were wrongly fixed leading to changes in schedules of the agitation and dharna. The dates clashed with the Bihar polls programme. At the same time, Rajasthan corporation polls and MP bypolls also clashed with these dates.

However, Congress performed well in the Rajasthan corporation elections. As per the results declared on Tuesday, the party got a clear majority in two of the six municipal corporations, while it will be able to get power in the other two with the help of independents. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s stature will rise with this performance. His strategy in civic polls turned out to be effective. But now what is to be seen is how the party organisation in the state runs the movement decided by the high command. The Congress will be able to hold agitations in MP and Bihar only after poll results on 10 November. Most of the state units of the Congress remained neutral, much to the chagrin of the high command.   

Tractor rallies as announced by the high command on the line of one held by Rahul in Punjab have met the same fate. These rallies were scheduled to be held from 1 November. No state has started it off as yet. Tamil Nadu Congress has, however, invited Rahul for the tractor rally to be held in the state. It will be an important exercise as Tamil Nadu is going to polls next year. Actually, the Congress’ plan was to create an atmosphere in the country on the issues of Dalits and women atrocities and farmers woes. But strategists did not plan it properly. When the Hathras issue was hot, they did not pay attention to it. Likewise, when Rahul hit the street against the farm laws, then the strategists should have done much more to maintain the momentum created by Gandhi scion.

In view of Rahul’s strict instructions, the Congress-ruled states passed the bills in their respective Assemblies to counter the farm laws. But these bills will be sent to the Governors and the President for their assent. But it is difficult for the states to get their assents to the bills which are in place to counter the Central farm laws. The Congress will try to make this a big issue and take the battle forward against the farmers’ laws. If the results of the Bihar polls and the MP bypolls are in favour of the Congress, then the party would be aggressively moving forward with its agitation.