The tongue that showed non-cooperation to the Cooperation Minister
VB Editorial | August 14, 2025 |
There is a saying: “An old root and a new sprout make a beautiful tree.” In politics, senior leaders are expected to be those roots, deep, steady, and guiding the party through storms. Their long experience should strengthen the organisation, not weaken it. But in the Congress today, that very idea seems to have turned upside down. Instead of standing as pillars of strength, many seniors have turned into burdens, creating more embarrassment than support.
Take the case of S. M. Krishna. Once a towering figure who served as Chief Minister, Union Minister, and Governor, he left the Congress in his final years claiming neglect, only to end his career making bitter statements against the very party that gave him everything. Even after joining the BJP, he found no real honour. The same story played out with leaders like Pranab Mukherjee and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who used the Congress like a banana leaf, useful only until it was discarded. Now, Shashi Tharoor too seems to be leaning towards that path.
In contrast, Rahul Gandhi, despite facing ridicule and setbacks, has remained committed to the party’s ideology. With the Bharat Jodo Yatra and relentless campaigns, he has tried to inject new life into the organisation. While some seniors pull the party backwards, Rahul struggles to push it forward.
It is largely due to Rahul’s persistence that “vote theft” has become a subject of national debate. From Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra, from Karnataka to Bihar, he has highlighted the manipulation of electoral rolls and the complicity of the Election Commission. In Bihar especially, the scale of irregularities has alarmed the nation, with even the Supreme Court expressing concern. At such a crucial time, when democracy itself seems at risk, Congress leaders across states should be rallying behind him. Instead, Karnataka’s Cooperation Minister, Rajanna, chose to display his non-cooperation.
His loose remarks, questioning Rahul’s allegations, handed the BJP an unexpected weapon. The irony is sharp: at a moment when the opposition should have spoken in one voice, a minister from within broke ranks and weakened his own party. Rajanna’s statement has not only embarrassed Congress but also placed his own ministerial post on the chopping block.
Even if his intention was not to target the high command, Rajanna cannot claim ignorance of how his words would be twisted. When the very institution of the Election Commission is accused of undermining democracy, it was his duty as a minister to lend his voice to the struggle, not fuel the fire of dissent. Instead, he dug a pit for himself — and now finds BJP leaders stretching a false hand of sympathy to pull him out.
The opposition has predictably seized on his statement. Both Houses have witnessed heated arguments over whether Rajanna should be sacked, with BJP leaders crying hoarse that he has been made a scapegoat. Their hypocrisy is glaring. This is the same BJP that mercilessly silences its own leaders, MLAs, journalists, activists, and even police officers when they dare to speak the truth. Their newfound compassion for Rajanna is nothing more than political theatre.
At the same time, the episode raises questions about Congress’s internal democracy. Some argue that Rajanna’s freedom of speech should be respected. But freedom of speech inside a party cannot extend to giving ammunition to political opponents when the battle is over saving democracy itself. This is not the first time Rajanna has made remarks that hint at sympathy for the BJP. In the past, the party tolerated him. This time, however, his words struck directly at the high command, and at Rahul Gandhi’s fight against electoral fraud.
Rajanna’s rhetorical question, “What was the state government doing when irregularities were happening?”, might have been aimed at Karnataka Congress leaders. But its impact went far beyond, undermining the larger national struggle. Anyone with political maturity would know that the Centre can engineer manipulation through the Election Commission regardless of which party runs a state government. Bihar is proof enough.
Internal debates within a party are natural. But there is a time and place for everything. Rajanna chose the wrong time, wrong place, and wrong words. Whether his motive was carelessness or deliberate sabotage, the outcome is the same: he has damaged both himself and his party.
It is indeed unfortunate that another minister from the Valmiki community has had to step down. But in this case, Rajanna has no one else to blame. His fall came not from his opponents, not from the BJP, not even from the Congress high command, but from his own tongue.
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Indigo flights chaos: SCR to run special trains to clear passenger rush
Hyderabad (PTI): The South Central Railway on Saturday announced that it would run four special trains to manage the surge in passengers resulting from the large-scale cancellation of IndiGo flights here.
The move comes as flyers face significant disruption and long queues at the airport due to the cancellation.
A press release from the SCR said it is running the special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers to Chennai, Mumbai and Shalimar (Kolkata) from Hyderabad today.
Meanwhile, as many as 43 outbound Indigo flights were cancelled from here on Saturday, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport sources said.
ALSO READ: IndiGo cancels over 200 flights from Delhi, Mumbai on Saturday
Similarly, 26 incoming flights are also likely to be cancelled during the day, they said.
The flight cancellations drew ire from passengers, who thronged the IndiGo counters at the airport demanding to know the exact situation.
“This is utter nonsense! Digiyatra done, message received that departure has been rescheduled ahead of the scheduled departure and now upon arriving at Hyderabad airport coming to know at the security checkpoint that Indigo flight is cancelled,” Tarun Singha, former Ministry of Defence spokesperson said in a post on X.
“But the thing is if you don’t shout they do nothing. Example at Hyderabad Airport, there was no staff no flight information for an hour. Then a fellow passenger started shouting on mic and an Indigo staff appeared finally,” a netizen said in a post.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from across airports, its CEO Pieter Elbers apologised in a video message for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.
In the one-way video communication, Elbers also said that the airline was expecting fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
