Why liberals love to hate the Congress – and why it’s easy to do so | The Indian Express

There is no cost to — or danger in — criticising the Congress.

Mithilesh Kumar Gautam, guest lecturer at the department of political science at Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith University, was sacked for tweeting that women would be better served by reading the Constitution and works of B R Ambedkar than by fasting during Navratri. The category confusion notwithstanding, such a statement would not have been a firing offence at another time and in many other places. But, unsurprisingly, the RSS-backed ABVP took offence to his words and the pliant university administration showed him the door.

The Congress, today, is barely the largest national opposition party. It has governments in just two states – Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Why, then, is it at the receiving end of attention, analysis, criticism and ire to a degree that the ruling party hardly ever is? Why is Rahul Gandhi scrutinised and criticised more than Narendra Modi? Why aren’t regional parties held to the same standards? Why is the grand old party expected to embody all the virtues that the English-speaking liberal read about in a political ethics textbook in the heady days of university idealism? The answer, perhaps, lies in the parable of Mithilesh Kumar Gautam.

But first, a little history.

Almost since Independence, the English-speaking Indian rarely, if ever, had to pay the price for his politics. Nehruvian, Libertarian, pro-Capital or Labour, the upper-caste elite that holds enormous sway even today over the public conversation found it easy to subscribe to grand narratives that did not, in fact, question their privilege. It is easy, for example, to believe that the injustices of the world are a function of market dynamics, of the invisible hand, rather than a function of structural inequality. Or that it is not a coincidence that the vast majority of CEOs and businessmen are upper-caste.

The first time this class was challenged was in the Mandal moment, when the vast majority asked for a share of public resources. That was when Hindu identity and the BJP juggernaut, not coincidentally, gained momentum. But, throughout the coalition years, NDA-1 and UPA, this elite – the liberal, sometimes left, sometimes not — continued to dominate the conversation. That has changed for the first time since 2014, and more pointedly, after 2019. Today, there are consequences to speech in India.

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/congress-liberals-love-hate-8199157/

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