Are the Left and Congress playing China’s game?

As the cars are forced to divert to narrow dusty service roads from the wide Delhi-Jaipur highway (NH-44) at the Shahjahanpur-Khera border, one sees rich-looking farmers with red flags have taken over the highway with their SUVs and tractors. With pizza stalls, masseurs and bonhomie, the protests here and at the Singhu border have the air of a town fair. This is India’s new proletariat. Fattened on power subsidies and minimum support price at the Indian taxpayers’ expense, they do not care whether they are causing the nation heavy loss and inconvenience. As the farmers’ protest lingers, one wonders whether there is a bigger game and deeper planning at play to weaken India. Where is the money coming from? Who gains the most from blocking laws that can revolutionise the Indian agricultural economy? Who has recently received a military jolt while trying to bully its way into grabbing territory along a disputed border? Who had to swallow its pride and halt its progress? Who is on the receiving end of a massive diplomatic backlash worldwide over its role in being the originator and spreader of COVID-19? And so, who is most likely to try dirty, covert means to attack India’s progress? The questions point only in one direction: A Communist dictatorship run by a man of almost delusional ambition. In 1959, when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru admitted to illegal actions by Chinese forces in the Northeast Frontier Agency (NEFA) and Ladakh, the Communist Party of India stayed quiet, as if it were not important at all. During its Calcutta summit, it released a statement effectively disputing India’s territorial claims along the McMahon line. When the Chinese butchered the Tibetans, the CPI put out a statement praising the Chinese for leading the Tibetans from “medieval darkness”. Comrade VS Achutanandan was censured in 1962 for arguing in favour of donating blood for the jawans and contributing money from the sale of prison rations saved by inmates to the defence fund. During the 2017 Doklam standoff, the CPM blamed India for increasing “the profile of the Dalai Lama and the so-called Tibetan provisional government. The visit of the Dalai Lama accompanied by a union minister to Arunachal Pradesh and the recent unfurling of the Tibetan flag of the provisional government in Ladakh are serious irritants for China,” its statement said. After the clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Galwan, the CPM politburo released a statement calling it “unfortunate”, without even naming China. The Congress itself has quite a record with China. Rahul Gandhi wanted to pass the very same farm laws. It was in the Congress 2019 election manifesto. Now, the party is misleading farmers and fomenting chaos. Is there a deeper agenda? Gandhi insinuated that the Chinese had robbed Indian land, insulting the government and the forces in the time of conflict. On 3 July, 2020, he tweeted a video where people were claiming that China had taken our land, implying that the Indian forces were lying. Turns out the man in the video was actually a Congress worker and former councillor. Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (run by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi) took money from China between 2005 and 2009. Congress-led UPA government allowed the trade deficit with China to balloon 33-fold, increasing it from an almost negligible $1.1 billion in 2003-04 to $36.2 billion in 2013-14. In 2008, the Congress and the Communist Party of China (CCP) signed an undisclosed MoU. Around then, Sonia Gandhi-led Rajiv Gandhi Foundation accepted Chinese money. Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has also been found to have donated to the China Association for Internationally Friendly Contact (CAIFC). The US Congress has called the CAIFC a “suspicious extension” of Chinese military involved in espionage activities. Rahul secretly met with the Chinese several times in the past. Once he met Chinese ministers during Kailash Yatra. In the middle of the Doklam stand-off, he had quietly met with the Chinese ambassador. These farmer protests have been the launchpad for an attack on Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, an Indian giant standing in the way of China’s 5G plan to wire the world. China’s plan is to python-wrap the world with the Belt and Road Initiative and 5G networks. However, lately, nations have almost unanimously kept Chinese companies away from setting up 5G networks. It is significant than that in the last few days, protestors vandalised and destroyed more than 1,500 mobile of Reliance Jio in Congress-ruled Punjab. Jio is set to be the biggest 5G player in India. The protesters have demanded the release of Naxals and jihadis in jail for anti-India activities. Punjab railway lines were blocked, cutting off supplies to the critical Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh among other routes. The exchequer has already lost more than Rs 30,000 crore. Who gains from all this? Who is acting like that power’s deep assets? These are questions concerning India’s national security. Our forces have fought off the external enemy. It is the enemy inside which seems most vulnerable, compromised and dangerous.