Bengaluru: The Congress’ newfound support of its political and ideological nemesis, the Shiv Sena, has left people torn between amusement and shock.
Those with an ideological bent consider it a backstabbing, while those given to pragmatism note with amusement the Machiavellian ways of politics.
While the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, the name for the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance, has a common, minimum programme agenda that appears to emphasize ‘secularism’, most Bengalureans don’t mince their words, calling the political drama ‘opportunistic’.
Some believe that the alliance may not impact the Shiv Sena, which has no reach beyond Maharashtra, but the already flailing Congress, in its bid for power, might deal with more brickbats than benefits in the long run, in terms of its national presence.
The Shiv Sena, says Adwait, who works with a private e-commerce platform, “Has always had an extreme right-wing, anti-North Indian image. The Congress, on the other hand, had a more moderate approach. The Sena is limited to Maharashtra but how can the Congress, which has projected itself as a flag-bearer of secularism, face its voters with the same claim?” Adwait adds that the political aim of the opposition, is so focussed on removing the BJP, that it appears to be willing to do so even if it means compromising its ideology.
While reacting to a three-day Sadhbhavna fast launched by Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat that was aimed to moderate his image of a Hindutva poster boy. Sena’s founder Bal Thackeray castigated him in the party’s mouthpiece Saamna. As Congress leaders took to social media to berate Pragya Thakur for calling Nathuram Godse a ‘deshbhakt’, Twitter users hit back, reminding them of how the Shiv Sena, again in Saamna, also declared Gandhi’s assassin a patriot as it mocked Sonia Gandhi.
“I believe that the arrogance of BJP has got a jolt. With the new alliance, Sena will temper down its hardliner image. The question should be put across to BJP as well. With hardly any electoral gain the party usurped power in Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur,” Vivek Gupta, an employee with a call centre counters Adwait.
“It is a speculation that the new alliance may not work. The common minimum programme (CMP) that the alliance has come out with sounds good,” Gupta adds.
Holding on to his argument Adwait further adds that minorities, North and South Indians have been victims of Shiv Sena’s bigotry and Congress with all imperfection was a breather for them.
“All I can say is that Congress has backstabbed those who have been supporters of its ideology. The BJP and the Sena had promised to give Bharat Ratna to Veer Savarkar. There will no wonder if Congress suddenly starts seeing a freedom fighter in Savarkar,” he states.
