Hypocrisy Chronicles

The Congress party’s outrage over perceived slights to Indian democracy and the dignity of its leaders betrays its own fraught history of moral inconsistencies. The latest row stems from the funeral arrangements of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, where Congress leaders accused the BJP-led government of ‘insulting’ Singh’s legacy by holding his last rites at Delhi’s Nigambodh Ghat instead of a designated memorial site for national leaders.

While Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi decried the government for its alleged injustice to Singh’s legacy and his proud Sikh community, Rahul Gandhi termed the decision a “total insult.” The Gandhi siblings’ accusations against the BJP only underscores the Congress’s selective amnesia of its treatment of its own leaders.

For the Congress to call foul on the dignity accorded to its former Prime Minister is strikingly ironic when set against its treatment of former PM P.V. Narasimha Rao and former President Pranab Mukherjee - both leaders who, despite towering contributions, were subjected to the ignominy of being downplayed or ignored because they did not align themselves slavishly with the Nehru-Gandhi family’s hold over the party.

Rao’s body was not allowed entry into Congress headquarters allegedly on Sonia Gandhi’s instructions, causing his last rites to be performed in Hyderabad against his family’s wishes. As significant as Manmohan Singh’s contributions to liberalizing India’s economy were, equal credit belongs to Rao, who shepherded the country out of the financial crisis in the early 1990s to lay the groundwork for reform. Yet, Rao faced derision and alienation from his party during his lifetime, particularly in the tumultuous final years of his premiership. The unkindest cut came posthumously. When he passed away in December 2004, the Congress leadership pointedly refused him a state funeral in Delhi. The contrast was stark: Jawaharlal Nehru’s heirs had their mortal remains ceremoniously interred along the Yamuna; Rao, a man who arguably rescued India from the brink of financial collapse, had his body unceremoniously consigned to a cremation site in Hyderabad. The party’s treatment of Rao sent a clear message: fealty to dynastic power, rather than contribution or vision, was the litmus test for institutional reverence.

The Congress’s recent cries of ‘injustice’ over Dr. Singh’s funeral are undercut by its own unresolved legacy of opportunism and double standards. The party’s participation in history’s darkest chapters, including the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and its political pettiness in marginalizing Rao, have eroded its claim to moral authority.

For all its claims of upholding democratic and institutional values, Congress’s chronic inability to confront the hubris of its own leadership weakens its credibility. It remains a party that demands high standards of others but seems incapable of holding itself to them. Until Congress reconciles with this duality, its self-righteous criticism of the BJP will continue to appear hollow, rendering its accusations against the ruling government less an earnest call for justice than a desperate attempt at reclaiming lost political ground.