So, when are BJP leaders going to revolt against their leadership?

Finally, some Congress leaders have begun a ‘revolt’ against the party leadership, aka, ‘High Command’. One group wrote a letter, fairly respectfully, seeking elections and internal democracy. Another group was blunt, telling Sonia Gandhi to “look beyond family” and to the party’s health and survival. No one thought this was possible in a party of sycophants, most of whom have practised the art for decades. But it has happened, and that’s good for Congress and good for the country.

The question is, when are BJP leaders going to summon the gumption to even ask questions of their leadership, let alone ‘revolt’ against it? Koi mai ka lal hain?

For years, BJP leaders have shouted and screamed that Rahul Gandhi was a dynast, a ‘Shehzaada’, a ‘Clown Prince’, Pappu, even spread canards through WhatsApp that he was a ‘drug addict’, etc., and asked indignantly, “Congress wants to thrust Rahul Gandhi on the nation as PM? Do they have no patriotism or care for the country?!”

Alright, let’s assume that Rahul Gandhi as PM would have been a disaster for India. But what has Modi, the Yoga-practising, fully sober, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Mataram-shouting patriot, international genius and global visionary, done to the country in these six years? Are you better off today or do you have an expectation that you will be better off in 2024 than you were in 2014? Do you have an expectation that your children’s future will be better than yours?

So, again, when are the ultra-patriotic leaders of the BJP, who were so concerned about what would happen to the country under Rahul Gandhi, revolt against their leadership, given what it has reduced India to? Here are some reasons why they must, but, of course, the question is, koi mai ka lal hain?

Congress, it was alleged and widely believed, was corrupt and collected election funds from industrialists and handed them favours. But under Congress, large, anonymous donations to the party were still illegal and the party could be called out, quid pro quos investigated. Indeed, wasn’t that what Modi promised to do — root out political corruption? What did he do instead? He made it perfectly legal to collect political donations anonymously via Electoral Bonds. Now, even as the economy has sunk, GDP has shrunk by a quarter, and industry is in doldrums, the BJP is cash-rich and grows richer by the day. Rs 7,000 crore and counting. And the country does not know who’s giving it all this money (more than 90% of the contributions are in Rs 1 crore and higher bond denominations, so it can’t be people like you and me). And we will never know because it has been written into law. What you could question Congress for and what was still illegal then is now legal, indeed the BJP’s preferred method of fund collection. We don’t know whether the funds are coming from favoured industrialists or from the ISI or the CIA or from Chinese intelligence.

Are BJP MPs aware where they are getting all this money from? Or has the BJP’s “conscience-keeper”, the RSS Sarsanghchalak, been told? Do BJP leaders consider the Electoral Bonds scheme an act of patriotism or even constitutionally right? Or, are they OK with it so long as Modi-Shah can win elections for the party, as the Nehru-Gandhis did for Congress, and keep them all in power and profit?

Is it considered an act of great honesty and integrity and patriotism in the BJP that the PM-CARES fund is not under RTI and so we, the citizens, cannot ask or know who the donors are (except, of course, one highly publicised donor – the PM himself), what the money is being used for, whether the ventilators apparently bought with the money are working, and why the money is being used to build large, make-shift Covid-19 hospitals only in Bihar, just as elections are due there?

For years, BJP leaders made fun of Manmohan Singh, saying that his UPA-2 government suffered from policy paralysis (for which much credit should go to the BJP for stalling Parliament for three years). Now, under Modi, since 8 pm, November 8, 2016, the whole country and economy has been progressively paralysed. Is it acceptable in the BJP for the PM to shut down currency and country at will, with a four-hour notice whenever he feels like it? Is it part of BJP patriotism not to ask their leadership questions or make it known to them that India is not anybody’s personal fiefdom to do as he pleases?

Did any BJP MP or minister feel for the millions of migrant workers who walked hundreds of miles to go back to their homes, denied food and shelter and harassed by police? Did anybody ask the PM why those millions had to undergo such a treatment in their own country? Or, why indeed it was necessary to shut down a country of 1.38 billion people with a four-hour notice and what we have gained from it?

BJP MPs shout ‘Modi, Modi’ inside Parliament. Is it considered patriotism in today’s BJP to do so? For years, they have been calling Congress leaders sycophants. What are they? Well, some Congress leaders have now gathered the gumption to question their leadership. Anyone in the BJP who has the guts to stand up and prevent what Indira Gandhi did to Congress from happening to the BJP? Koi desh-premi mai ka lal hain?