The Congress party set out on this march with two unstated official objectives: to take head on the politics of BJP-RSS, and to make the Congress as a political force to reckon with.
While chairing a meeting of the parliamentary party, she also discussed the current political situation and the party s strategy in both houses of Parliament.
Photographs by PTI outlookindia.com 2021-04-09T14:06:40+05:30
On March 27, as he campaigned in various assembly constituencies across Kerala, Rahul Gandhi made a scheduled stop to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa Dharma Sastha temple and the adjoining Vavar mosque in Kottayam’s Erumeli town. Later, addressing a public gathering, the former Congress president declared: “In Erumeli, people who go to temples respect Muslims, and the Muslims who go to mosques respect Hindus. That is the Indian tradition. However, the BJP and the RSS are trying to create cracks in this great tradition by instilling communal hatred among people.”
The BJP’s alleged attempt to create religious polarisation for winning elections is a recurring theme in the Congress’s campaigns in poll-bound Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal and Pondicherry. That the BJP has had vast swathes of India’s electorate inebriated on a dizzying cocktail of religious fervour, jingoisti
Naseer Ganai March 10, 2021 00:00 IST Azad Puzzle Challenge outlookindia.com 2021-03-19T13:39:45+05:30
The Congress and its supporters in Jammu and Kashmir couldn’t be more confused and hopeful at the same time. And it’s all got to do with senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, a party loyalist since the early 1970s. He upset the party’s powerful family circle last year by being among the “Gang of 23” to write a letter seeking reforms in the organisation an act seen as a dare, an affront. He retired from the Rajya Sabha recently, but his televised farewell will be remembered for Prime Minister Modi tearing up as he waxed lyrical about Azad sahab, the wise parliamentarian. The Kashmiri politician reciprocated in a series of rallies in Jammu early March. He praised Modi for equal measure, publicly and in front of his home folks.
Photograph by PTI Puneet Nicholas Yadav March 11, 2021 00:00 IST A Big If In Its Ifs And Buts Tides outlookindia.com 2021-03-19T13:38:00+05:30
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has espoused the virtues of turning every adversity into an opportunity. As campaigning for the assembly polls in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry gains momentum, the Congress too is hoping to test Modi’s ‘opportunity in adversity’. And the party has no dearth of adversities, after Modi displaced one Congress government after another since 2014.
Adding to the Congress’s unending list of hardships have been its leadership crisis, a diminishing ability to dictate terms of engagement with allies, ideological confusion, and the perception that Brand Nehru-Gandhi has lost its mass appeal.