Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Can Congress prevent Modi from becoming PM?' that was published in Newsband

Can Congress prevent Modi from becoming PM?

Elections in India reveal the various types of tactics which our politicians take resort to in order to gain power. The national parties adopt a certain kind of strategies while the regional parties come up with their own kinds of maneuvers. There are some regional parties which are prepared to join any government that requires its support.

In the current Lok Sabha elections, there could emerge a Congress-backed third front government in the event of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance failing to get an absolute majority. The Congress is willing to back a non-BJP government without joining it just to keep “communal forces” out or to prevent Narendra Modi from becoming the Prime Minister.

Some political pundits speculate that there could be an emergence of a third front government in a situation where neither the BJP-led NDA nor the Congress-led UPA had the necessary numbers.

This current election has proved that the caste system and prejudices exists even now. The fact is it existed for around or more than 1000 years. It divided the Hindu community throughout India. It is slowly attenuating with increased literacy. Few politicians particularly the Nehruvian variety and their coteries took advantage of it and the linguistic barriers to consolidate the dynastic hold. They never allowed the competition at top national level. When in the past, people like Kamaraj and Morarji Desai showed signs of becoming tough competitors for Nehru-Gandhi family they were coolly dethroned from the national political scene.

Today, the slogan of Congress is ‘Halt Modi At Any Cost’ and to achieve this goal, the Congress is prepared to don any role. The Congress is desperate to stop Narendra Modi simply because the Gujarat-strong-man offers two extreme possibilities. One possibility is: BJP will be voted out after Modi proves himself intellectually dishonest and intellectually bankrupt. The other is that India will witness Hitlerian rule, all dissent will be crushed leaving no space for the Congress in the next two decades. And that is the fear staring the Congress in the face.

This is the reason why Congress is prepared to support third front government maybe with Mulayam or Mayawati or Jayalalitha or Mamta or Naveen Patnaik or Kejriwal or someone else as PM.