PM Modi's praise for RSS reflects BJP's moorings

In April 1980, BJP was launched. Speaking from the podium of the foundation session, eminent jurist Mohammad Currim Chagla predicted that India's future party of governance had emerged.

- SHUBHABRATA BHATTACHARYA

Narendra Modi's encomiums to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort have drawn flak from sections of Opposition. This was the first time ever that an organisation's centennial became the subject matter of a Prime Minister's 15 August address.

Forty decades back, in 1985, at the centenary of the founding of Indian National Congress, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had not paid similar tribute.

Forty years back Congress had 400 plus seats in the Lok Sabha. Since 2014 it has been decimated to Opposition benches. BJP four decades back had a mere 2 seats. Since 2014, it has been given the mandate to rule. BJP's determination over past four decades has been matched by Congress's meandering. BJP has steadfastly stood by its program and slogans. Congress's 1980 slogan, "Na jaat par na paat par, Indiraji ki baat par, mohar lagegi haath par" has been superseded by Rahul Gandhi's penchant for OBC votes, which incidentally Congress does not feel confident enough to seek in the name of its leader, as it did in 1980 (a leader under whom they have lost three Lok Sabha elections and won only 18 of 72 assembly polls).

In contrast to Modi's praise for the organisation he hails from, in 1985 the presidential address of Rajiv Gandhi at the Centenary Session in Bombay had noted that enthusiasm of Congress workers was fettered by "brokers of power and influence" who dominated the party. In four years, in 1989, the era of Congress enjoying a majority of its own in Lok Sabha became a subject for the archives.