Congress more than any other party should lead crusade for freedom: Ashwani Kumar

What in your view are the major issues in this election?

The 2019 Lok Sabha election is a watershed election that will define not only the course of the nation’s future but the quality of our democracy. It is essentially about a choice between the attributes of a muscular state and the guarantees of a constitutional democracy in which the dignity and freedom of the individual is at the centre. The fundamental point of departure between the politics of the BJP and the Congress is that the Congress stands for human dignity, freedom, liberties of citizens and the guarantees against abuse of power through a steadfast adherence to constitutional mechanisms and to constitutional guarantees. This distinction is increasingly getting blurred because what has been practised in the last five years by the BJP dispensation is essentially an authoritarian rule in the garb of a democratic facade. For most people, the facade is easy to see, but in the heat of the moment now generated on account of armed hostilities with Pakistan, it is quite possible for people to be seduced by an appeal of a muscular state with a guarantee of national security. In this particular context, it is all the more important for the opposition to put human dignity and freedom as the defining distinctions between its politics and politics of the BJP… The Congress as a party of the freedom movement has the primary responsibility to present this election as a choice between freedom, liberties and dignity of the individual and a state that will not care to ride roughshod over these inalienable rights.

But the Congress does not seem to be doing so?

Unfortunately, there seems to be a view that it is possible for our appeal for freedom to be trounced by an overarching emotive appeal to nationalism which the BJP will certainly invoke. The people of this country do not regard freedom and nationalism as mutually exclusive. It is the job of political parties to direct the course of public opinion… Congress with its presence across the country must not shirk from this responsibility… It would be a colossal tragedy if the opposition fails to present upfront the fight for freedom and human dignity as the central fulcrum of its campaign. Rahul Gandhi’s statement in Chennai is reassuring in this regard.

But why is the Congress not able to shape its campaign on those lines?

I do not know what the blueprint of the campaign is… but I believe that the Congress more than any other party should lead the crusade for freedom. This is one of those moments which the party much seize in order to define its distinction vis a vis the BJP.

Do you think the Congress and opposition were overwhelmed by the Pulwama terror attack and the Balakot strike?

It is futile to deny that armed hostilities between nation states do generate a kind of emotion that influences national thinking. That is a lesson of history. But it is equally true that sagacious leadership is able to restore the value of deliberation and debate in the making of choices which define the future of the country, and who else other than the Congress who can do this job? As for your question, I believe every effort should be made to present the campaign of the opposition as a campaign for freedom with the Congress taking the lead…

But is the BJP attacking the Congress for raising questions?

The Congress has already taken a correct stand by saying that it stands by the forces and the government as far as national security is concerned… While standing behind the government in the defence of the nation and its security and integrity, the right to interrogate the government on its record of governance including on the question of assault on human freedom and institutions of democracy is an inherent right of the opposition which it cannot forego. Therefore, it must find the necessary and the right idiom in which to communicate its message… That is the challenge before the party.