IANS Interview (IANS) | 29 Apr, 2024
Surjit Bhalla, renowned economist and political analyst spoke
exclusively to IANS and said that the Congress party was itself to blame
for its 'pitiable' state and said that the party's repeated attempts at
appeasing a certain section did not do any good to it.
When questioned whether Muslim appeasement politics did irreversible harm to the grand old party, he nodded in the affirmative.
"The
politics of Muslim appeasement began when fundamentalists and religious
radicals started dominating Iranian discourse. Congress government did
many mistakes like banning Salman Rushdie's book. Rajiv Gandhi
government's stand on Shah Bano case is no secret. Party's stand on the
Ram Mandir did it no good," Sujit Bhalla observed.
"Ram Mandir is
among the most revered shrines for Hindus but Congress questioned its
existence and opposed the construction of temple at the disputed site of
Babri Masjid. This hurt the party deeply. It's from there Congress got
into the trap of appeasement politics and dug its own grave," he said.
Bhalla
further added that there should be no place for appeasement or
favouritism. It should be based on equality and diversity.
He
also raised strong opposition to reservations and quotas and said that
the Congress government conducted a caste-based census in 2011 but
decided to hold the data, at the last hour, apparently sensing some
backlash.
"Now, the same party is pitching for caste-based census
and reservations. I believe this is an outdated ideology. India's
strength lies in its diversity and the parties must design and fashion
their campaign around this theme," he said.
"I think Congress campaign is not on the right path and is a recipe for disaster," he added.
He
also expressed strong disapproval of Rahul Gandhi's clamour for
Institutional and Financial Survey in the country and offered a piece of
advice.
"Rahul Gandhi should devise his strategy by studying
data. But, the problem is that he focuses only on ideology," he said and
also cautioned that any campaign far from ground realities will only
put the party on a weak wicket.
Bhalla said that Prime Minister
Narendra Modi was speaking about Viksit Bharat 2047 vision and this is a
forward-looking and confidence-building step for the people of the
country.
"I am sure Viksit Bharat vision can be realised. I
think, India can achieve this target by 2045 also. For this, it will
need to grow at 6 per cent GDP. Today, we are growing at 8 per cent.
Even if it goes down by some per cent, an average of 6 per cent growth
can be achieved for sure," he said.
