No reason for Oppn to lose hope

With hardly two months left for the much awaited Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party has seen many top ranking leaders deserting its ranks for greener - or rather saffron pastures - in what seems to be a ‘one-way movement’ towards the BJP.

After the Maharashtra Congress saw many of its top ranking leaders like Milind Deora and Ashok Chavan quitting to join other parties, there is much speculation that top ranking Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath could be the latest to fall for the BJP bait though he is yet to confirm his exit.

Leaders like Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh have rushed to quell rumours that Nath will soon be on his way to the saffron fold; what is troubling Congressmen is that Nath is someone who has stood with the party through thick and thin even earning the comment; that he was Indira Gandhi’s ‘third son’ after Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi.

He has been a steely source of strength for the party winning again and again from Chhindwara through the decades even as many other stalwarts of the grand old party gave in to temptations and threw in the towel.

So what is making so top guns of the Opposition succumb to the pressure, forgetting their ideological moorings and join a party which is antithetical to everything they have stood for?

Leaders of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) some of whom are behind bars in cases filed by central agencies like the CBI and Enforcement Directorate, aver that there is tremendous pressure form the saffronists to join their ranks and those who refuse to give in, could soon end up facing cases.

Whether they are right or wrong, what is turning out to be a serious concern for secular, liberal and progressive democrats is the manner in which many are already predicting an overwhelming win for the BJP led alliance in the polls while giving no hope to the opposition at all of even coming close to the ruling party’s projected figures.

Dampening any hope adherents of the opposition had in beating the saffron juggernaut, Delhi chief minister and one of the leading lights of the Opposition, Arvind Kejriwal said that if the BJP wins this year's polls, the AAP will liberate the country from the saffron party in the 2029 elections.

His remarks were probably triggered by the nagging doubt that with the INDIA alliance presenting a picture of disarray, not much can be done to stop the BJP led front from running away with the honours in 2024.

But do his remarks really sum up the sentiments of a billion and more Indians, reeling under the crippling impact of price rise, poverty, unemployment, communal attacks and biases of the worst kind?

Is everything hunky-dory on the economic front as the BJP is claiming even as thousands of farmers camping on the outskirts of the national capital, cry out in desperation for a law to ensure minimum support price for their produce?

The job market is shrinking, probably because of the grim global scenario even as thousands of youngsters emerge every year from varsities with big dreams.

On the price front, there is nothing to cheer about with fuel prices and those of food grains showing no signs of dropping.

A poll battle is never won or lost till the last vote is cast and leaders of the opposition who seem to be increasingly cynical about battling the saffron juggernaut, should remember that the people know best who is most dedicated to their welfare; and the people have not spoken yet.