Rahul – The Shame of India

Rahul Gandhi ashamed to be an Indian

Rahul Gandhi is ashamed he said to be an Indian when he sees the plight of the farmers. He is not ashamed to be in a party which is covered and reeking with scams. What kind of a statement is this coming from one who is all set to handle the reins of governance? Throughout RG has been exposing his ignorance of Indian affairs and his total alienation from the reality that is India . One could understand if he had stated something similar out of disgust for the corruption that the Congress has blotted this nation with.
Granted that the utterance was made in a utter disbelief of the misery of the farmers coming from RG it needs to be dissected. From the time of Independence the farmers have been neglected. This started with the British when all its policies pauperized the rural masses and impoverished the rural people. Farmers fled to nearby towns-settled in the periphery of small towns as unskilled labor and the dehumanized spread of slums started. The farmers lost their dignity and their pride in these guttural urban spread.

The land policy was such that made them sharecroppers/tenants and marginal farmers. The irrigation system was such that the tail end farmers and those who were the marginal farmers were directly affected As water became more and more scare the farmers depended only on rain fed lands which hardly gave them sufficient subsistence .Take for example the Cauvery delta lands these belonged to just three rich land lords-one of which is G K.Vasu’s father-late G.K.Moopanar. These lands had three crops harvesting because of the water abundance and the rich soil .Even when land reforms were ushered in people like the then Congress chief late G K.Moopanar was able to wriggle out through the loopholes of the Land Reform Act. Hence the lands were held in Trusts and in benami names. The poor labourers did not know that the ‘pattas’ were in their names but they faithfully and slavishly laboured in the fields and harvested for the rich farmers the produce.

All this, and more during the time of the Congress regime. The same pattern was replicated all over India . Even at a time when India boasted as an agricultural country the farmers were in penury and the rich absentee landlords enjoyed the fruits. No government was able to change this. Except for a period of seven years from Independence till date it the Congress which was and is in power. So what is Rahul Gandhi cribbing about the plight of the farmers. Did this ‘plight’ suddenly befall the farmers or was it contained only in Uttar Pradesh.He is as usual playing politics with the suffering and hardships of the farmers/dalits. This is the game play of the Congress. The scion who talks of change cannot and is not a change agent because he is not prepared to learn. He is not prepared to change himself.

If there is going to be a change it must start with oneself. Rahul Gandhi cannot talk of change at the grassroots level when change does not touch him and his mother. The Congress party cannot be in the hands of an Italian who does not understand the farmers plight and has no sensitivity to their hardship. The farmers’ plight cannot and should not be used as a vote garnering mechanism. This is worse than terrorism.

There have been suicides in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra but nothing substantive had been done to tackle the human tragedy. Sound bytes by the Congress spokespersons are cruel jokes because they only try to score brownie points and not look at the misery and the human tragedy-the enormity of the problem and accept first the failure of the GOI in tackling the problem .Then envisage measures and means not tokenism to alleviate the suffering.

Simply because UP will go to the polls soon RG suddenly became a champion of the farmers. Eating along with them-sleeping in one of their houses is no effective measure to bring the farmers succor. It has been a long standing problem. Come elections and all the political parties are up in arms supporting the farmers. They are then conveniently forgotten. Their hard labour fruits can be eaten by rodents, can fester and rot but is not available to fill the hungry stomachs of the people.

It is in this background that one must analyze the utterance of Rahul Gandhi when he said that he is ashamed to be an Indian. Does he realize that we Indians are ashamed of being Indians because of the Italian connection –because an un-Indian is at the helm of affairs because ignorance and appeasement policy have destroyed the countryside. We have an economist of a PM who is subservient to Mrs Sonia Gandhi.In no country is a political party leader more powerful than the government of the country. But in India it is the High Command-what a dichotomy to have a High command in a democracy.

It is thus not political gimmicks which will safe the country-the farmers and alleviate suffering. It is not teaching Mayawati a lesson that is called for .It calls for the Centre to bring in reforms-land reforms- land acquisition law, Farmers security, Farmers Insurance et al. .It is here that we need to concentrate and make relevant change. Change for the better will call for a genuine reassessment of land, availability of infrastructure for the farmers, storage facilities, holding capacity, marketing, land acquisition, water availability, land usage and land utilization for development.

This cannot happen unless and until the dynasty regime is dismantled and the democratic institutions are set in motion. It does not have room for NAC and least of all for an NAC chairperson. It calls for Parliament to be accountable-for the various ministries to work out strategies and for the PM to act. The Congress party is just a political party and for a democracy to be vibrant all political parties need to function and have their respective roles. Hence the understanding and tackling of the farmers plight encompasses a whole gamut of actions and reassessment to be set in motion

To be ashamed for being an Indian because of the farmers’ plight is indirectly striking at the Congress-its total failure and it also unconsciously reveals the real RG and his moorings. Inspite of all the failures, in spite of human tragedies in spite of poverty and penury, no sensible patriotic Indian who knows his/her country will ever utter that he/she is ashamed of being an Indian. Because the other side of the coin of the nation reflects the rich hoary parampara,the resilience of a people, the valor and courage of a people to put up with this dynasty regime, the values embedded in its patience, its farsightedness, its ability to still look beyond the scams and the wave of the HAND and proclaim that I am proud to be an INDIAN.

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