The first week of ongoing winter session of Parliament was a complete washout. The Congress and its allies were consistently in a ruckus creation mode on the issue of violence in Sambhal.
While the pandemonium in Parliament continued over alleged violation of minority rights in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress and its allies conveniently forgot to raise the issue of minority rights violations in neighbouring Bangladesh. There was a clear delay in Congress’ reaction on Bangladesh violence. It took the grand old party over three days to come out with a statement on the issue.
This despite the fact that the Ministry of External Affairs had issued stern statements on the issue of ongoing violence against Hindus of Bangladesh.
Instead of backing the Indian government immediately, the Congress leadership seems to have reacted to the emotive matter as an afterthought.
The delay in reaction to attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh and continued ruckus in Parliament on Sambhal violence ensured that the Congress got itself trapped again in the minority appeasement allegations.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has repeatedly alleged that the Congress only worries about minorities when the affected side is Muslim, and not other communities.
The delay by the Congress also ensured that it created a doubt amongst its supporters regarding reclaiming the legacy of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was instrumental in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. The uninspiring reaction of Congress over recent developments in the neighborhood, gives its chief opponent an opportunity to fill in the gap left by the grand old party.
Bangladesh has been and will always be an emotional issue for India, considering the fact that our governments have showcased its creation as a failure of two nation theory on which the country was partitioned in 1947. All national political parties will need to clear their stand on the issue of violence against Hindus. And Congress would do itself a favour by strongly aligning with the Indian government’s stand on the matter.
