M A I N   N E W S

Deft move by Cong to resurrect its image
Anita Katyal
Tribune news service

The game plan The Congress core committee cleared the decision to hang Guru on Friday It aims at deflecting attention from UPA’s governance deficit and its poor economic record in the run-up to polls in several states this year followed by 2014 General Elections Guru’s hanging, coming a few months after 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s, has diluted the BJP’s attack against Shinde’s saffron terror comment and deprived the party of an opportunity to slam the UPA for being soft on terror Narendra Modi’s rise and the resurrection of its Hindutva agenda by the RSS are other factors which prompted the UPA government to go ahead with the decision

New Delhi, February 9
A combination of factors appears to have prompted the Congress-led UPA government to go ahead with the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru this morning even though this case had been pending for several years.

Under attack for a variety of reasons, ranging from corruption, price rise, policy paralysis and being soft on terror, the UPA government’s move on Guru is calculated to deflect public attention from its governance deficit and poor economic record to terror in the run-up to this year’s Assembly polls in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi to be followed by the Lok Sabha elections next year.

The rise of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the resurrection of its Hindutva agenda by the RSS and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s failure to make a mark are the other factors which drove the UPA government to give the green light to Afzal Guru’s hanging.

The decision, cleared at the Congress core committee meeting last night, comes at a time when a beleaguered UPA government is bracing for a crucial budget session of Parliament commencing on February 21.

A belligerent BJP with Rajnath Singh at its helm had announced its plans to pillory the government in general and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in particular for his recent statement about the involvement of the BJP and the RSS in running camps for training Hindu terrorists.

The BJP had declared it would gherao Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence to protest the Home Minister’s controversial comment on February 20 and that its members would boycott Shinde in Parliament.

Guru’s hanging, coming a few months after 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab was sent to the gallows, has diluted the BJP’s attack against Shinde’s saffron terror comment and deprived the principal Opposition party of an opportunity to slam the UPA government for being soft on terror.

For the second time in in so many months, the Congress has hijacked the BJP’s anti-terror plank. For instance, the BJP today was left with no other option but to welcome the government’s move while its objections were limited to questioning the timing of the decision.

While the UPA government’s decision has raised questions about an early Lok Sabha election, the Modi factor can hardly be overemphasised. Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that Modi will be the face of the BJP in the next General Election, the UPA government’s decisions on Kasab and Guru’s hanging were designed to win brownie points with the disenchanted urban middle class voters who have been particularly vocal in attacking the ruling coalition and are gradually gravitating towards the Gujarat strongman.

Even as Modi has captured the imagination of this constituency, Congress party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Rahul Gandhi is yet to establish his credentials as a vote-catcher and a leader.

As the ongoing political discourse dwelt at length on the possibility of a Modi vs Rahul Gandhi battle, the Congress felt compelled to change this narrative to its fight against terror. This could, however, result in generating tension in J&K.