From the Urdu Press: Year of hope and fear to UP bumps on Rahul route to Pawar’s return to Congress Bhavan

In its editorial on January 1, headlined “Naya Saal 2023 aur Naye Azaaim (new year and new resolutions)”, the Bengaluru-based Salar writes that while somehow coming out of the Covid pandemic at the outset of 2022 the world ran into the year’s biggest geopolitical crisis when Russia invaded Ukraine. At a time when the global economy seemed to be on a course of recovery it was hit by the Russia-Ukraine war. Even a year later, the war still rages, although both countries have expressed their willingness to end it, the daily says, adding that in the absence of any roadmap for its resolution that could take both sides on board, this conflict is going to remain a formidable challenge for the international community in 2023 too.

The editorial points out that the relations between India and China have continued to be tense, although the two neighbours made some headway in dialling it down since the Galwan Valley clash between their troops in 2020. Following the Chinese PLA’s recent incursion across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector, tension has again flared up, it states, adding that in the new year the leadership of both countries will continue to face the challenge of improving the situation on the borders. Against all such odds, India has continued to maintain the health of its economy to a reasonable degree, it says. “India’s role in ensuring the cessation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine is also being regarded as crucial. India’s take over of G20 presidency this year provides the country with an opportunity to use the platform of this major International grouping to this end.”

On the domestic front, several states are going to the Assembly polls through 2023, whose outcome would be crucial in the run-up to the 2024 Look Sabha polls, the edit says. “By electing a leader, Mallikarjun Kharge, who does not belong to the Gandhi family, as its president, and with Rahul Gandhi undertaking the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress has tried to overcome its inertia to some extent, but the party continues to be hobbled by factionalism and organisational weaknesses.”

The daily notes that the new year has begun in the backdrop of the Covid surge in China and several countries across the world. “Thus the outlook for 2023 could not be called rosy at this juncture. But going by the recent global history, what appears at the beginning of a year to be a golden scenario also fizzles out down the line,” it says.

SIASAT

Commenting on the “hesitant approach” of the Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh towards the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Hyderabad-based Siasat, in its editorial on December 28, points out that the Yatra will resume after a nine-day break in Delhi and enter Uttar Pradesh on January 3 en route to Srinagar. Starting from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, the Yatra has so far passed through several states including Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana. The daily writes that UP is politically India’s most significant and sensitive state, where the BJP has got the mandate to rule for the second successive tenure. “Rahul’s Yatra has sent ripples through UP’s political circles sparking a buzz there,” it says, noting that although the Congress has invited key Opposition faces such as SP president Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary for the Yatra, these leaders are fighting shy of joining it.

In a state like UP where the Congress has been a marginal player, these Opposition leaders are unwilling to share any public platform with the party, the daily says. “Akhilesh Yadav wants to distance himself from the Congress. He is keen that the SP should remain the sole alternative to the BJP in UP, which is possible when any other Opposition party does not get any significant public support,” it states, adding that similarly Mayawati is also not likely to join the Yatra. “While the BSP has been suffering massive losses in elections, Mayawati has continued to go after the Congress,” it says. The RLD, an SP’s ally, has said Jayant Chaudhary would not be able to walk with Rahul due to his “pre-decided engagements”.

“It is thus evident that the Opposition parties in UP have adopted a non-committal stance towards the Yatra, which they are neither supporting nor opposing. This reflects their hesitation as regional parties with regard to the possibility of the Congress’s emergence as a player in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” the editorial says. “As regards the Congress, although the Yatra is succeeding in reaching out to the people the party has been denying its political and electoral objectives. The Congress has maintained the Yatra is only meant to unite India amid the prevailing atmosphere of hate by spreading the message of love and harmony,” it notes. The Yatra has however been reconnecting the Congress with the people, even as the party looks to boost the morale of its leaders and workers through this cross-country exercise, it adds.

“In a crucial state like UP, a unity in the Opposition ranks is necessary, although various experiments in this regard have proved unsuccessful over the last eight years with the BJP continuing to enjoy public support,” the edit says, adding that if the Opposition parties want to stop the BJP’s juggernaut in the coming general elections they will have to unitedly make a dent in the saffron party’s UP tally. “If they join the Yatra, it could mark their first step in that direction.”

URDU TIMES

Referring to NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s visit to his erstwhile party Congress’s office in Pune, Congress Bhavan, on the party’s 138th foundation day, the Mumbai-based Urdu Times, in its editorial on January 1, notes that Pawar delivered his speech there like a “statesman” as he asserted, in an oblique swipe at the ruling BJP, that “A Congress-mukt Bharat is not possible in India”. Rising above party lines, Pawar highlighted the significance of the Congress’s ideology and its long contribution to the country while making it clear that the BJP could not be countered without the grand old party playing a key role, the daily says. Pawar, who started his political career as a Congress worker in Pune, was visiting Congress Bhavan perhaps for the first time since 1999 when he left the party to float his own outfit NCP.

Meanwhile, voices have started emanating from a section of the Congress that Rahul Gandhi will be the “Opposition’s prime ministerial candidate” in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the editorial states. “This is a bid to drive a wedge through the Congress leadership. After a protracted upheaval within the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge has taken charge as the new party president. Projecting Rahul’s name as the party’s PM nominee at this stage is premature,” it says. Bihar Chief Minister and J(U) leader Nitish Kumar, when asked to comment on former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath’s Rahul-as-PM-nominee push, said he had no problem with it. “On his part, Rahul has himself not expressed any such wish. A PM has to be chosen by the people,” the daily says. Rahul has also countered the BJP dispensation by asserting that he belongs to a “family of martyrs”, even as he charged the government with “mishandling” India’s foreign policy and key strategic issues like the China threat by letting China and Pakistan get together, it notes. “It is imperative for the Opposition parties to close their ranks. Some of them are not joining Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra for their political reasons. But they should pay heed to Sharad Pawar’s message of the Opposition’s unity if they want to take on the BJP.”