Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows. Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is probably the best or the worst, whatever one may call it, for example in the given circumstances. There are several others as well.
A picture of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann sharing some warm moments with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the ‘save democracy’ rally in Delhi on Sunday, is currently being shared extensively on social media in Punjab with a jibe at the Punjab Congress leaders that their leader (Rahul Gandhi) is seen so close to Mann, who has not been very kind towards them (the Punjab Congress leaders).
The bitter acrimony between Mann and the Congress Legislative Party leader in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Partap Singh Bajwa early this month inside the assembly, are too fresh in the minds of people to be forgotten so soon.
On Sunday, ‘INDIA’ leaders got together and held a rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, to “save democracy”, which was actually and primarily organised to protest against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the ‘Delhi Liquor Scam’.
Congress leaders including Ms Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi shared the dais, among others with, AAP leaders including the Punjab Chief Minister Mann.
Since the Congress was the original complainant in the case alleging scam in the new Liquor Policy brought by the AAP Delhi government, which was later withdrawn, it would have been too embarrassing for the party to protest against the arrest. The party renamed the rally with an apparently “grander” motive to “save democracy” and said, this rally was not “person-centric”, with an obvious message that it was not exclusively against Kejriwal’s arrest as the AAP made it seem to be.
There were no such protests when Jharkhand Chief Minister, Hemant Soren was chased by the Enforcement Directorate before his resignation and subsequent arrest.
It was also strange because the AAP and its convenor Kejriwal have demonized the Congress to such an extent that the party is finding it difficult to redeem itself. When the AAP formed the government in Punjab, it unleashed its vigilance department against the Congress leaders arresting a few former ministers, legislators and senior leaders. That is the reason, the Punjab Congress leaders strongly resisted any move to have an alliance with the AAP in the state.
However, with enough hints being dropped from different quarters, Congress and AAP seem to be willing to negotiate a “last minute” alliance in Punjab also. This is because of the fact that the two parties are facing a stiff challenge from the BJP.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in fact, made a special mention of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, telling him that the two parties should work together. He, however, did not specify for election purposes. But the message has already gone across that the two parties are willing to reconsider their relationship in Punjab also.
How the Congress leadership in Punjab views such development remains to be seen. Most of the party leaders, except for those who have been jailed, may eventually come on board for an alliance “in the interest of the party” as otherwise they will be facing a tough challenge from the BJP.
Congress and AAP were not the only “strange bedfellows” on the stage. There were leaders from the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party, two bitter rivals in Jammu and Kashmir, the leaders from Communist parties and those from the Trinamool Congress, again bitter and fierce critics of each other.
This was not lost on the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge who said that although some parties are bitterly opposed to each other in different states, they have come together in the “national interest”, a euphemism for sheer “political opportunism”.
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