In a display of open panic over the Modi juggernaut, the Congress has appealed to the Election Commission to monitor the activities of the RSS, Swami Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the ground that they are “conducting political activities” for the BJP “without being registered as a political party.” The party urged the Election Commission to monitor their activities with regard to the election campaign and include all expenditure incurred by them in the poll expenses of the respective BJP candidates.

This is in sharp contrast to the Congress president inviting the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid to her residence and urging him to ensure that the Muslim (Communal) votes are not split (against the Congress), a request that he subsequently accepted, though it is a different matter that several prominent Muslims denounced his commitment to the Congress, including his own brother!

The Congress’s alarm is equally evident in its attempt to misrepresent BJP leader Amit Shah’s exhortation to local leaders in western Uttar Pradesh to ensure that the people cast their votes to ensure that political parties they do not like are removed from office in a democratic manner. Shah’s advice that the ballot is the best revenge, and that the days of guns and bullets are over, is also being twisted and given unwarranted Communal colour; observers interpret this as suggesting that the Congress drought in UP continues unchanged.

Hence, the aggravated anxiety at the party’s Akbar Road headquarters. Pointing out that the RSS claims to be a social and cultural organisation, Swami Ramdev’s main activity is conducting yoga camps and making and selling Ayurveda medicines, and that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar runs centres teaching the ‘art of living’, the party alleged that all three bodies/ persons were incurring huge expenditure on campaigning for the BJP nominees.

The Congress cited the presence of Narendra Modi at a yoga camp organised by Swami Ramdev in Delhi, and said that the “aura” acquired by these persons and organisations in their respective fields was being used to further the political prospects of the BJP, which violates the norms laid down by the Election Commission for conduct of fair and proper elections.

AICC legal department secretary KC Mittal has pointed out that at the Ramlila Maidan, Acharya Govind Dev Giri from Varanasi was present on the dais and recited verses from the Bhagvad Gita; he spoke of the holy cow and Hindutva in the presence of Narendra Modi and sought votes for him. Hence, he said, the activities of such persons and organisations should be monitored in each constituency. Further, there should be action if they seek votes in the name of religion, caste or community, directly or indirectly. Mittal added that the Delhi Election Commission had already issued a notice to Swami Ramdev for using the yoga camp to make a political speech without permission from the Commission.

The move comes close on the heels of a widely disseminated public appeal by Left Academics warning that the strong possibility of the NDA coming to power under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi “constitutes a palpable threat to the future of our secular democracy”. It is pertinent that several of these academics have appeared on television programmes, ostensibly to discuss the elections, but used the platform to vent their prejudice against the BJP and Narendra Modi in particular; some regularly write in leading newspapers and magazines and vent their ideological biases. Most have been issuing appeals that favour a particular political party in successive elections.

In their appeal, they have urged various individuals and political formations to “urgently take whatever steps are necessary for defending our secular democracy”. One can only shudder at what that could mean, given that some of these academics are now leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and harbour sympathies for violent extremism.

That Congress finds nothing amiss in academics issuing appeals to the electorate to vote against the BJP-led NDA is understandable because, under successive regimes led by it over six decades, these academics have controlled the intellectual discourse of the country and dominated academic institutions and policy-making bodies to keep India stuck in a colonial time warp, destroying national self-esteem and inhibiting the full recovery of the nation’s civilisational heritage and pride. Now, the restive spirit of the Indian people, first expressed in 1967 with the rout of the Congress in all of northern India, has acquired an all-India spread and momentum that seems unstoppable.

Hence, the creeping dread, with even Sonia Gandhi virtually conceding defeat by saying that the BJP is using costly advertising to project Narendra Modi as a ‘magician’ who can cure all ills of the country. This is a poor election speech, because she should have been able to tell the people why they should trust and follow her son and heir, Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress establishment intellectuals, who include National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy and some who were actively associated with the Babri Masjid action committee, have stated that, “Never before in post-independence India have political forces, which are a front for anorganisation committed to creating a Hindu Rashtra, made as strong a bid for power as in the coming elections. These forces are led by a person who presided over a pogrom against the Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and has never expressed any contrition over his role in that ghastly incident. And they enjoy the backing of the most powerful corporate houses in the country. The prospect of this alliance of corporate capital and communal forces coming to power constitutes a palpable threat to the future of our secular democracy.

“We urge all responsible individuals and political formations to ponder over the situation and urgently take whatever steps are necessary for defending our secular democracy. We appeal to the electorate to foil this corporate-communal alliance’s bid for power by voting against the BJP-led NDA”.

The signatories include Irfan Habib, Suvira Jaiswal, MMP Singh, Arjun Dev, Vishwamohan Jha, Neeladri Bhattacharya, Amar Farooqi, DN Jha, Harbans Mukhia, Iqtidar Alam Khan, KM Shrimali, Mushirul Hasan, Zoya Hasan, Neera Chandhoke, RC Thakran, Rakhshanda Jalil, Shabnam Hashmi, SZH Jafri, Shireen Moosvi, Nikhil De, Vivan Sundaram, Achin Vanaik, Jayati Ghosh, Prabhat Patnaik, Utsa Patnaik, Kumar Shahani, Githa Hariharan, Anand Sahay, Arpana Caur, Amiya Kumar Bagchi, MK Raina, Ram Rahman, Saeed Mirza, Anil Sadgopal, Ashley Tellis, Badri Raina, Pamela Philipose, Prabhat Shukla, Kumkum Roy, Antara Dev Sen, Uma Chakravarti, Zahoor Siddiqui, Hasan Suroor, and others.