The gaushala games: Congress cannot afford another electoral disaster

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath’s election promise to build gaushalas in every village panchayat reveals the party’s paucity of ideas even amid its desperation to end the 15-year-long BJP rule of the state. What Nath and other Congress leaders need to realise is that it is futile to attempt to beat BJP in its game, it needs to offer new ideas. No sooner had Nath spoken about gaushala development, a government official started to reel out figures spent on cow welfare by the earlier Digvijaya Singh and current Shivraj Singh Chauhan governments. Further, BJP also touted the opening of eight big cow sanctuaries (gau sadans) in the state.

Talking of cows is a giveaway that Congress is bereft of ammunition to go after Chauhan. The chief minister has presided over a massive extension of road infrastructure and crop procurement network in his first two terms accompanied by high agriculture growth rates. However, the 2017 Mandsaur farm agitation and losses in civic body polls have cast doubts on Chauhan’s ability to trump anti-incumbency. But caught in factional strife and uncertainty over building a political alliance with BSP, the Congress campaign appears to be losing direction. A party out of power for 15 years needs to project a strong governance agenda to regain the electorate’s confidence. Promising gaushalas cannot achieve that end.