Opinion View from the right: Congress’s AAP

Both Sangh Parivar weeklies take a grim view of the Aam Aadmi Party’s violent protests in front of the BJP headquarters on the day the election schedule was announced. While an article in the Organiser declared that “Aam Aadmi doesn’t want hooliganism, Mr Kejriwal”, an editorial suggested that the protests reflected the tie-up between the Gandhi surname and the Gandhi-cap-wearing AAP workers.

“The speculation that there is a relationship between those with Gandhi surnames and those flashing Gandhi caps has now become more clear,” claimed the Panchjanya editorial. “The AAP’s change of target is not sudden,” it says, questioning the AAP’s motives for training its guns against the BJP despite its original direction against corruption under Congress rule.

An article in the Organiser also stresses that the AAP has disappointed the masses with its vandalism. “Against the hopes that the Aam Aadmi Party had raised, the act of vandalism… followed by incidents of violent scuffles between [the] AAP and BJP supporters on the streets of New Delhi and Lucknow on March 5 was an abysmal low in Indian politics,” says an article by an anonymous “aam aadmi”.

Carnival Colours

Drawing parallels with Holi, the Organiser has called the announcement of the general election schedule by the Election Commission an opportunity “to spread the colours of democracy”, with its front page carrying a large picture of Narendra Modi.

“Like Holi is traditionally associated with colours, fun and celebrating relationships, Indian elections are also like a democratic carnival. All political actors create pranks for voters. The balloons of social media and spices of 24×7 electronic media will add to the taste. New alliances are found and old enmities will be remembered,” says an editorial.

The story about poll schedules in the Panchjanya highlights the poor attendance during the dinner for Congress MPs called by
Sonia Gandhi, saying it reflected the downcast mood in the incumbent party.

Bangalore contest

The Sangh Parivar journals trained their guns against a Congress veteran and a greenhorn for different reasons, apart from the fact that both enjoyed the confidence of the party high command. While Panchjanya criticised veteran Congress leader N.D. Tiwari, the Organiser chose to take on Congress greenhorn Nandan Nilekani. Panchjanya branded Tiwari as “the pinnacle of embarrassment”, reminding readers of his public admission of having fathered a child over 30 years ago out of wedlock. An editorial alleges that the Congress “family” traditionally promotes tainted people and cites the example of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who has been made the governor of Kerala despite allegations of corruption in the Commonwealth Games.

An Organiser report, apparently written before Nandan Nilekani was announced as the Congress candidate from Bangalore South, highlights that Nilekani was “going about with the campaign with supreme self-confidence and is riding roughshod over the Karnataka Pradesh and Bangalore city district Congress leaders” because “he is the choice of the Congress high command, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and also perhaps Prime Minister Manmohan Singh”.

“Bangalore South is also considered unsafe for the Congress ever since 1977. After 1977, the Congress won the seat only once and has lost nine times,” the article notes, pointing out that incumbent BJP MP Ananth Kumar has won the seat the last five times. “The better chamber for the likes of Nandan Nilekani is the Rajya Sabha and certainly not the House of the People,” it opines.

Compiled by Ravish Tiwari