• Umesh Dwivedi

There are four different people and with that, four different personalities. On one hand, we have a Congressman Shri B.V. Srinivas, who has been serving the public for the last 90 days, risking his own life on the streets, during the Covid epidemic. On the other hand, we have this white-collared Jitin Prasad who left the Congress Party saying that he was unable to serve the people by staying in it. What did Congress not give to Jitin Prasad? From 2001 to 2013, he had only reaped the benefits of being a Congress man. Now when not in power, he is a little unsettled. He wants power only to extract every possible inch of benefit. If he really had to do service, then why didn’t he serve selflessly like Congressman B.V. Srinivas, carrying oxygen cylinders on his shoulders on the streets to help the needy? What has he given to the organization?

Similarly, even Scindia left the Party alleging that he was not able to serve by staying in the Congress. If you consider politics to be a business and a career, then you should not be surprised or sad! If politics is service, then you will have to take inspiration from people like B.V. Srinivas. Now the issue is again the same that if you continue to do service, how will you run the household expenses? To be able to do that again, power is needed, so that you can earn money through it and also take care of the workers associated with you. But this does not apply either to Scindia or Jitin Prasad, because both have enough wealth; even for their generations to come. So, what do they need? They need Power so that they can rule. So that they can exercise influence in getting anyone released from the police station easily. So that they are able to get anyone transferred by simply writing a letter to any of their workers. They want status and influence, but that is not service. Service is what people like Srinivas are doing. Carrying oxygen cylinders on his shoulders, he is trying to save people amid pandemic; That is true service.

In the end, let me talk about a common Congress worker whose name is Suresh Dwivedi. He is my younger brother. He is handling his father’s legacy in his village for the last 25 years. He has been a flag-bearer of the Congress idealism. His source of income is very limited. He first worked in a private company, then set up a tea shop, that too did not work. Now, there is another small shop that he is running, that too rented, from which he hardly earns Rs. 5000-7000 in a month, yet he is serving Congress with dedication.

He does not have a lavish lifestyle but is just a normal worker. His shop remains inoperative for 15 days in a month because he has to serve the public as well. Many of his co-workers joined BJP recently when Scindia joined BJP, but he did not go to BJP because of the values he got from his father and the ideology of Congress, Nehru Ji and Gandhi Ji. The real Congress personifies itself in selfless workers like B.V. Srinivas or activists like Suresh Dwivedi.