Congress plan to manufacturing victim hood will back fire soon

First manufactured intolerance, then manufactured issues for stalling the Parliament and now a strategy of playing the victim card in the National Herald case, Congress is doing everything it can to save the first family.

What the Congress is not realizing is that if it builds a tower over a weak foundation, it's almost certain to collapse! The lowly Congress got a fresh lease of life, when news channels exposed the alleged LalitGate scandal, which resulted in a complete wash-out of the monsoon session of the Parliament by Congress. Although the Indian public didn't appreciate the logjam in Parliament then, but found the BJP government equally guilty of not sacking Sushama Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

However at the fag-end of the monsoon session, Sushma Swaraj's aggressive counter attack on Congress on 'quid pro quo' put the Congress again on the backfoot where as Susham Swaraj recovered her lost image. Then the drama of #AwardWapsi on alleged rising intolerance by some self proclaimed intellectuals happened. At first, Congress remained behind the curtain to masquerade this award wapsi as a spontaneous revolt by intellectuals, but afterwards it came at the forefront and hijacked the movement, only to prove that the award-wapsi was politically motivated. However the Indian public remained divided over the controversy.

BJP's defeat in Bihar assembly elections gave the Congress a feeling of resurgence. When Prime Minister Modi took some noticeable conciliatory steps in reaching out to the Congress for smooth passage of the GST bill; it looked that Congress would act like a mature opposition and allow passage of  bills in national interest. But then came the National Herald case, where theDelhiHigh Court rejected the petition filed by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi against the lower court's summons to them.

Congress took it personally! It's natural because sycophancy in the Congress is such that they always place Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi above all including the nation. Disruptions in the Parliament again started, this time alleging "vendetta" by the PMO, and Sonia Gandhi in fact went to the extent of saying that 'I am Indira's daughter-in law'. But they couldn't get support this time because of two reasons.

First of all the National Herald case is purely a case of corruption, where the court is dealing with it without any involvement of the Modi government.

Secondly, Sonia's threatening language of 'Do you know who I am?' coupled with disruptions of Parliament proceedings blocking important reform bills has started to irritate people.

Media, which is often critical of the Modi government and a bit soft on the opponents of Modi started asking questions to the Congress party. Not to forget Rahul Gandhi's blatant lies about his Assam temple visit and cancellation of the invitation to Kerala CM literally backfired. The Congress soon realised that stalling the Parliament on the National Herald issue would be counterproductive as even other opposition parties have distanced themselves in this case. That's why they have changed their tactics by manufacturing issues to stall the Parliament, due to which the winter session is almost sure to be washed-out.

Now according to sources the Congress is planning to play the victim card in the National Herald case in a big way. Rahul and Sonia might not opt for a bail bond as a result of which they might be sent into judicial custody. The plan is to replicate Indira Gandhi's act of going to jail alleging vendetta politics by Moraraji Desai government after the emergency era.

That's why Congress is gearing up for 'Jail bharo' movement by 2000 Congress worker in each block of the country as a mark of protest on 19th December 2015, the day when Sonia and Rahul Gandhi will appear at the Patiala House court in Delhi. The event is being planned to make it look like as if the entire country is protesting against the government. However, I think this plan is really ill-advised and sure to backfire. The reasons are as below:

The public is well aware of the fact that Modi government has nothing to do with the National Herald case. Also nowadays the public sees courts as more credible than politicians, hence they will neither accept stalling of the Parliament nor the drama of playing the victim by going to jail and protesting nationwide.

Not to forget the case of Arvind Kejriwal, who refused the bail bond and went to jail expecting public protests, which backfired seriously and Kejriwal had to submit a bail bond to come out of jail after couple of days.

Shouldn't nationwide protests by the Congress workers be seen as a way to pressurize and threaten the judiciary? Courts are more assertive now than they used to be during the days of emergency. So the concerned court in the matter may consider Congress protests as contempt of court. Then what would be the counter by Congress strategists? It's alright not to submit a bail-bond and go to jail. Question is for how many days Sonia and Rahul plan to remain in jail? The case would take several years to be disposed off.

Will Rahul and Sonia spend those several years in jail or will they opt to come out after a couple of days just like Arvind Kejriwal did? If yes, then how can the Congress justify it's victimization by this symbolic jail tourism by its chief and her deputy?

Point is simple, public can be fooled for a short period but not in the long run. People rejected Congress in 2014. The Congress should have acted maturely to ensure its return in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after regaining public appreciation. But if it continues to indulge in making such immature strategies, which in the era of electronic and social media are sure to get exposed immediately, then I am afraid that people are likely to dump the Congress in such a way that it will find it very difficult to recover.