The other day, having a conversation with an Indian National Congress Party (The Congress) senior leader, I smelled the smoke of a "pyre that has burnt itself out". Skin, veins, eyes, organs, blood all have been reduced to ashes; dying embers long dead. Yet here was this man, "a dead man walking", preening on The Congress party's excellent future.
The recent assembly elections had just been out. The left-of-center Congress Party had met the fate which once was Pompeii's--buried under the fire, pumice, debris and rocks of Mt. Vesuvius' eruption. Wiped out of history's consciousness. One day, Congress like Pompeii could be rediscovered--for the time being it is irrelevant in India's scheme of things.
This idiot couldn't comprehend the significance. That Congress was still around in 11 states in the 2014 election debacle; that it's tally now is left only to seven--only one state of consequence in Karnataka. Bihar lost since 1990; UP since 1989; MP since 2003; booted out of Tamil Nadu since 1967; the same as in West Bengal; a spent force in Andhra Pradesh and the newbie Telengana. Gujarat? You said it. Maharashtra, Karantaka, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan is a disaster hidden from this joker's view.
It didn't register with him that Congress' alliance is bad news for unsuspecting regional satraps these days. Ask the left-wing who has been left singed in West Bengal; or the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party in Tamil Nadu which is in the midst of self-flagellation. It also escaped him that the right-wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) rules in 16 of 29 states and has approval of 45% of the population--contrast to Congress' 6-7% share.
Yet this imbecile chose to fly in the face of logic. He pointed out Congress's return from the disaster of Emergency-hit 1977; on how it came back to bite its critics from the hopelessness of 1989 and 1996. Under the leadership of Rahul Baba, Congress could only look up.
The fact is Rahul Gandhi has brought Congress closer to extinction. He still believes in such sycophants ignoring the verdict of the nation's electorates. It's lost on him that Rahul Gandhi's presence in Bihar in 2010 was worth no better than three seats; that similar was the case in Uttar Pradesh in 2012. Frankly, Congress can't be guaranteed a double-digit Lok Sabha seats in 2019. This is extinction, a Pompeii-fate nothing less.
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