: For a Congress that has been on the back foot on a number of issues politically, including being on the wrong side of the surgical strikes debate as it played out, the Delhi police, which reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs, gave it and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) a platform to showcase Rahul Gandhi’s leadership skills.
On Wednesday, after it roughed up the family members of retired Subedar Ram Kishan Grewal and prevented them from meeting senior political leaders, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the focus returned to the gap between the promises and actions of the Modi government.
Grewal, who committed suicide on Tuesday here, left a letter saying he was taking the extreme step because of the non-implementation of OROP (one rank one pension), an issue that has great resonance with the Armed Forces, which has been battling for years to get it implemented. The Armed Forces are also a section of society seen as identifying more closely with the ruling BJP than with any other party.
The fact that the police went to great lengths to prevent Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Kejriwal from meeting the OROP protester’s family, galvanised workers and leaders of the Congress and AAP, who hit the streets, also courted arrest. It also focussed attention on the fact that unconditional OROP is yet to be fulfilled, that the growing anomalies in parity between the Armed Forces and the Civil Services, and the reduction in disability pensions, are yet to be addressed despite the government’s promises.
Seizing the moment
The Congress seized the moment and played an interview with Jaswant Grewal in the party office for journalists, in which he states that he was thrashed by the police before being detained.
Party spokesperson R.P.N. Singh pointed that Mr. Gandhi had on Diwali written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on implementing OROP and addressing other demands being made by the Armed Forces, on a day that the latter was spending with soldiers on the border.
“This government only believes in words, not deeds,” Mr. Singh said, stressing, “The Modi government seeks votes in the name of soldiers but is not bothered about addressing their demands and concerns,” in a reference to the way the government has in recent days taken ownership of the surgical strikes to use the nationalist card in next year’s Uttar Pradesh polls.
Mr. Singh also said, “It is a black day for the country when the family of a martyred soldier is roughed up and detained by police. All leaders who tried to meet the family members were also detained. Is this a democracy? Anyone asking a question, his voice is being suppressed — this is clear from today’s events.”
Later, Mr. Gandhi, when he was released late in the evening after his second detention, addressed journalists. He asked why Grewal’s family members, for whom Wednesday was the worst day in their lives, had to spend the day in police detention. “The minimum that the government should do now is to apologise to the family of the deceased ex-serviceman,” he said.
Clearly, the events of the day have energised the party and allowed it to showcase Mr. Gandhi’s leadership. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor even tweeted: This is the beginning of @INCIndia’s revival. Just as Indira Gandhi's arrest in 1979 led to her triumph just over a year later. #FreeRahul!
The days to come will show whether the Congress can sustain the issue.
