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Letters

Crisis In Opposition
The Indian National Congress (INC), the oldest national political party of India has become a private limited company of Gandhi- Nehru legacy. The supreme authority of this party is unable to chase the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government and the leaders are incompetent.

From grassroots level to it's All India Congress Committee, the organisations are weak. Then, on the state level it has surrendered to the regional political parties. Most of the regional outfits have emerged due to conflict with the state authority (President of Pradesh Congress Committee) of the INC. Due to poor organisation and the ego of the highest authority of AICC and PCC, INC has lost its state level support.

At present, INC is too weak to organise any movement against anti-people policy and desperate policy for the corporate battering. It is due to absence of honest and faithful leadership. During the period of UPA-I & II, it failed to control corruption. Further, due to the rigidity of the AICC prosperous leaders are leaving the INC.

Secondly, regional political parties are under trails for a scam and corruption. These parties have no strong leadership to protest against the anti-people policy of Modi Government. Every political party's agenda varies according to their political cause and it has failed to integrate and co-ordinate for joint movement and protest or to form an alliance.

The top bosses of these political parties take initiative for an alliance at the time of election and it dies on the half-way ultimately for the prime ministerial aspirants. Further, due to the involvement in corruption, they are usually threatened by CBI or ED.
Harasankar Adhikari, Kolkata

'Excluded Citizens'
While commenting on Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism (1966), Lillian Carson made some seminal observations: "Arendt argues that human rights only become meaningful when they are recognised in a political society…Those excluded from political communities do not have citizenship rights to protect them, so are in reality left with no rights at all…Excluded-citizens may enjoy some human rights, but they ultimately remain the most vulnerable to persecution and expulsion". (See Lillian Carson, "Human Rights and Democracy: An Incompatible or Complementary Relationship?" E-International Relations, May 7, 2017)

The recent publication of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, and passing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) bear testimony to unmaking of citizenship of a large number of people and making of "Excluded-citizens" in India, which is characterised in mainstream political thought as the world's largest democracy.
Arup Kumar Sen

Frontier
Vol. 53, No. 16, Oct 18 - 124, 2020