As the state gears up for assembly elections later this year, a mixture of propaganda and conjecture against the Congress are doing the rounds on social media. Some of them include, "Petty politics by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ensured Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel could not be the first Prime Minister of India", "The Congress was against Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar" and "Members of the Nehru-Gandhi clan are Muslims".
As the state gears up for assembly elections later this year, a mixture of propaganda and conjecture against the Congress are doing the rounds on social media. Some of them include, "Petty politics by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ensured Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel could not be the first Prime Minister of India", "The Congress was against Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar" and "Members of the Nehru-Gandhi clan are Muslims".
To counter these conjectures, the youth wing of the Congress will organise a two-day training session for its activists at Shirdi on June 15 and 16, where they will be taught ways to counter the propaganda in the battle for perceptions and mind-space.
"We are drawing up a list of frequently asked questions. These issues are frequently pulled up by the RSS (and BJP) to target us politically. However, our workers, because they have a sketchy sense of history, are unable to counter this with facts. Our training session will equip them to handle this. After all, the history favours the Congress, which has played a major role in freedom movement and nation building," said Satyajeet Tambe, president of the Maharashtra State Youth Congress.
Youth Congress workers will then be able to counter this propaganda and reach out to people with their version of events.
"Millennials and those born post-1990 may have a poor sense of history... For instance, at the time of Independence, Sardar Patel, was 73-years-old while Nehru was 58. Patel, who was unwell, died in 1950, three years after Independence," he explained.
During the Lok Sabha polls, workers of the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) had asked Dalits to vote against the Congress as the party had engineered the defeat of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in the 1952 general elections from Bombay and later in 1954 in a by-election from Bhandara. Tambe said they would tell their workers about how Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress had insisted on Ambedkar to be included in the drafting committee of the Constitution and later ensured his election to the Rajya Sabha from Bombay.
Activist-academician Ram Puniyani and actress Urmila Matondkar, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Mumbai as a Congress nominee, are likely to be among the speakers at the training session.
Tambe said the Youth Congress will also focus on 'Super 60' constituencies in the state. This includes 60 assembly constituencies where the party has a strong chance of winning. Youth Congress workers will run a campaign for these seats, which would also include booth management and use of social media to highlight local issues.
The Youth Congress is also demanding that fresh faces be fielded by the party in assembly segments barring those represented by incumbent legislators or where the party has strong candidates defeated in 2014. "Representation must be given to fresh faces, women and youngsters to mentor a young leadership," said Tambe, adding that the party, which was already in the opposition, did not have "anything to lose."
Some FAQs that the Congress will reply to:
- Pandit Nehru ensured Sardar Patel could not become the Prime Minister
- The Congress perpetrated injustice on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, endured his defeat in the Lok Sabha elections
- The Congress has no leadership sans those from established political families
- Pandit Nehru behaved in an unjust manner with Sardar Patel
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