Why Congress' 'Save Democracy March' was a save dynasty event

Amid confrontation with the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre over AgustaWestland chopper scam and President's Rule in Uttarakhand, the Congress took out a "Loktantra Bachao (Save Democracy) March" from Jantar Mantar on May 6.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, son Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh courted arrest at Parliament Street police station while marching towards Parliament to protest the "murder of democracy" being committed by the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, they were shortly released.

In any case, the march was hardly related to saving democracy, and these are the four reasons why:

1. AgustaWestland chopper scam a strict no-no

Despite the chopper scam being at the centre of all points of confrontation between the Congress and the BJP, it did not find a single mention in the "Save Democracy March". Sonia, Rahul and Singh made speeches before the march started and tried to play victim. But they didn't even utter the "A" of AgustaWestland controversy.

This clearly proved that the Congress is on the defensive and did not want to highlight the scam. It was just like the Bofors days, when the Congress would desist from uttering even the "B" of Bofors scam during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as PM.

Without naming AgustaWestland scam, Sonia alleged indirectly that the Congress leaders were being threatened and defamed. Their character was also being assassinated. She said the Congress would not succumb to these pressures.

She also claimed the Congress was not fighting the "anti-national forces" for the first time, perhaps alluding to the BJP. She said the Centre was trying to deflect attention from its failures on all developmental fronts in the last two years. But nowhere did AgustaWestland feature in her speech.

The BJP can hardly be held responsible for the AgustaWestland coming back into prominence once again. It was the Italian court which gave judgment and indicted its own citizens. Far from witch-hunting, the Centre has promised a fair inquiry and action into the matter.

2. Raising non-issues

Though the protest march had been named "Loktantra Bachao", the long list of grievances of Sonia, Rahul and the former prime minister did not pertain to stifling of democracy. Either their speeches were full of rhetoric or were not related to the main grievance.

For instance, Sonia dealt with the issues of farmers' suicides and price rise, Rahul spoke of drought, unemployment and farmers' suicides and Singh alleged that the universities and courts were not safe, alluding to the JNU row and the thrashing of JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar in Patiala House courts.

Sonia and Rahul, of course, alleged that the RSS and its chief Mohan Bhagwat were having a major "say" in governance.

3. Arunachal and Uttarakhand governments

Among the long list of grievances raised by the three top Congress leaders, the only valid point which related to saving of democracy was the fall of Congress governments in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

All three of them alleged that Centre had toppled the governments and murdered democracy in those two states. However, the BJP cannot be held completely responsible for fall of the two state governments.

First, rebellion within the Congress was responsible for the change in political equation in both the states. The Nabam Tuki-led government of the Congress fell after 30 Congress MLAs in a house of 60 rebelled against him. With the support of two independents and 11 BJP MLAs, Kalikho Pul has formed government. BJP has not even joined power in the Northeastern state.

As far as Uttarakhand is concerned, here too, former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna of the Congress, along with eight other party MLAs, rebelled against his successor, Harish Rawat. The Centre imposed President's Rule amidst attempts by the Assembly speaker to disqualify the nine rebel MLAs, which, in itself, was unconstitutional.

The matter is pending in the courts and the Centre has agreed to hold floor test, to be conducted on May 10, even though the Supreme Court has disallowed the rebel MLAs from taking part in voting. It is a case of the kettle calling the pot black. The Congress' record in toppling democratically elected state governments in the past is also far from satisfactory.

4. Robert Vadra

In the name of "Save Democracy March", the protest event turned out to be an effort to save dynasty. The importance of the event got diluted with the posters of Sonia's son-in-law Robert Vadra finding place of prominence in the march. Vadra himself is being accused of indulging in dubious land deals with realty major DLF in Haryana and Rajasthan.