Should the ruling party’s top leaders have been shocked by the absence of Congress party’s big-wigs like Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi at the investiture ceremony, organised to honour Pranab Mukherjee, ex-President of India, with the Bharat Ratna?
He was honoured by the present President, Ramnath Kovind, at New Delhi, a few days ago. The satisfactory matter was that several other Congressmen graced the great occasion.
Rahul Gandhi was extended with an invitation, but since he has been maintaining a distance from social gatherings, perhaps he thought not to attend this one too. Of course, it was a different occasion. Whose sharp brain could dissect the factual reason behind their absence at the auspicious ceremony? Could it be due to a speech delivered by Pranab Mukherjee in Nagpur? Not much was discussed about this odd, mysterious absence of the Congress party’s three top leaders on that occasion.
Politics definitely plays its role without getting disturbed with odd, and complicated circumstances. The party leaders also remain unfazed with desertions, defeats and disparagements. They breathe easily as any other common rung in human society and also move around confidently in a politically charged atmosphere.
The party’s senior leader, P Chidambaram’s arrest, has been described as a political witch hunt by Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, while another party MP Shashi Tharoor, expressed “I believe justice will prevail in the end. Till then we will have to allow some malicious minds their schadenfreude” (a feeling of pleasure at the bad things that happen to other people).
Presently, the oldest political party in India hasn’t been presenting the best image outwardly, and this is perhaps the reason why it has lost grasp over the Indian people.
Will Sonia Gandhi be able to revive or infuse new life into the party, like experienced leader Indira Gandhi once did, by the dint of her strong political will and manoeuvres? In a programme on Rajiv Gandhi’s 75th birth anniversary organised at KD Jadhav Indoor stadium at New Delhi, she asserted that the challenges that the Congress is facing are formidable but it must continue with its ideological struggle against divisive forces. She also insisted that the party should stand up and confront boldly those who were determined to destroy the party’ s professed values.