Congress’ comeback: Challenging Modi’s decade of dominance

Thanks to Modi's anti minorities and Hindutva driven politics which paved the way for  Rahul Gandhi of Congress party to be appointed as leader of opposition in the Indian  Parliament after a prolonged period of a decade.  Since 2014, this slot has been vacant as no opposition party ever succeeded in securing 10% of total seats, a prerequisite to become the leader of opposition. However, this time the Congress party easily did this by winning 99 seats.

Modi's plan of securing more than 400 seats in the 2024 elections badly failed mainly due to his negative political approach of targeting minorities, spreading hatred and violence. BJP, despite ruling for the past decade, failed to repeat its previous two landslide wins this time. The opposition 28 member parties alliance gave a tough time to Modi and the Congress party's performance was a surprise for all analysts.

During his first address in the assembly session, Rahul Gandhi lambasted Modi for spreading hatred and violence in Indian society.  He held RSS and BJP responsible for all the mess currently Indian society is facing. Surprisingly, to cement his perspective, he quoted  verses from the Holy Quran and sent Darood Sharif upon Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and  said that it is written in the Holy Quran “Have no fear [for] I am with you, hearing and seeing”.

The opposition leader pointed out that the BJP leaders spread hatred despite their claims of being Hindu, and stressing that that’s not what the religion is all about. Rahul concluded his remarks by saying that all the great personalities have spoken of non-violence and eliminating fear. As expected, the comments didn’t sit well with the Indian PM and his party prompting Modi to demand an apology from the opposition leader saying that terming the entire Hindu society as violent is a serious issue. However, the opposition leader was quick to respond and said that  the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are not representative of the entire Hindu society. Rahul Gandhi’s fiery speech in the assembly session was a clear  indication of the beginning of a tough time for the Modi government. Now they will have to face strong opposition inside and outside the Assembly. All neutral analysts  appreciated Rahul 's views and hoped that the time is over for BJP negative politics.

Indian minorities especially Muslims voters have enabled Congress and its alliance to play a strong opposition role and get them rid of the clutches of Hindu fundamentalists.  Now BJP will not enjoy an open field and will have to face tough resistance in the formulation of policies.

Besides the internal effects, presence of strong opposition to BJP has external implications as well viz-a-via its relation with neighbors especially Pakistan. One cannot expect miracles to happen but the freehand Modi government was enjoying for a decade seems to be vanishing away. One can expect that sanity will prevail in the rank and files of BJP leadership and recent setbacks in elections will prove as eye opener.

*The writer is a freelance columnist*