Dear reader, On Friday, the Congress party took to the streets, dressed in black, to protest against price rise, unemployment and the GST hike on essential commodities. The government response was a non-response, even going by its fairly low standards on engaging with the Opposition so far. Home Minister Amit Shah picked on the Congress's choice of date, August 5, and its wearing of black clothes. He saw in these a message to "further promote their appeasement politics". UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath described Congress protests as an "insult to Ram bhakts". Both Shah and Yogi were trying to link the August 5 protests to the beginning of temple construction in Ayodhya on this day, two years ago. The BJP can be said to be doing what it does - not answering questions, and calling the Opposition 'anti-Hindu' among other names. Shah wears his contempt for the national Opposition on his sleeve. In UP, most spaces are dominated by the Yogi government and, even though it has been keeping a low profile, the Yogi vigilante - a report in this paper today reveals how the Hindu Yuva Vahini, the vigilante force nurtured by Yogi Adityanath, is in search of a makeover ahead of the 2024 polls. But the day after, the question is also this: What was the Congress doing, and what did it achieve? For quite some time now, the Congress has been accused - deservedly so -of not having the energy or the conviction to take its fight to the streets. The top-down high-command culture in the party has blunted its political instincts and taken a toll on its agility. Congress exertions on Friday should be welcomed, therefore, by those who are despairing about the capacity of the sagging Opposition to hold up its end in our democracy. And yet, even as the Congress finally ticked a box on Friday, it also showed once again just why it continues to draw a blank in terms of the intended effect. For one, there was the inappropriate timing - coming days after the Congress protests over the ED questioning of Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, its agitation on price rise/unemployment/GST seemed to underline that people's issues are an afterthought for a party that had bestirred itself after a prolonged lull only when its leaders were targeted. And then there is the fact of the House being in session when the Congress took to the streets. The Congress may contend that it is not allowed to have its say in the House anyway, it could point to the suspension of 4 of its Lok Sabha MPs for the entire session - later revoked - as proof of the BJP's intolerance of debate. It would be right, but it would not be telling the whole story. The BJP must bear the brunt of the blame for the decline of deliberation in Parliament, but the Congress must also own up to its share of the responsibility. It did not treat Parliament with adequate respect when in government and it has not used it with credibility and consistency in Opposition. In this context, its demonstrations and marches outside the House drew attention to its inarticulateness and lack of strategy inside it. The problem is also Rahul Gandhi's articulation of the problem - apocalyptic and all black, like the clothes he and his colleagues wore on Friday. India is witnessing the "death of democracy" and the "onset of dictatorship". Even Hitler used to win with the help of institutions, and every institution in the country is under the control of the BJP-RSS. "Saare ke saare. Ek nahin bacha hai. Saare ke saare (All of them, without exception. All of them)", he said. The problem with dire Rahulspeak is not that things are not as bad as he projects them to be. It is that by painting such a scenario, he seems to be giving himself and his party a cover, saying - look, what can we as the Opposition do here? Given Congress inaction on a range of issues, given his own stop-and-start politics, that sounds too much like excuse-making. The 'all is captured-and-destroyed by the BJP' argument is problematic on another count too. It dismisses and discounts the part of the electorate that did not vote for the BJP, and disrespects and alienates the voters who did. The Congress's task is not easy. But by painting it in stark and unnuanced ways, by dressing it in impenetrable black and by vacating the middle ground, the party is failing to even define its challenge as it faces an opponent who is determined, formidable and unforgiving. Till next week, Vandita | 
