Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress (Hindi: भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस) (also known as the Congress, and abbreviated INC) is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, Mahadev Govind Ranade^[1] and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million members and over 70 million participants in its struggle against British rule in India. After independence in 1947, it became the nation's dominant political party, led by the Nehru-Gandhi family for the most part, major challenges for party leadership have only recently formed.

In the 2009 general elections, the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha, with 206 of its candidates getting elected to the 543-member house. Consequently, it along with a coalition of allies called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), was able to gain a majority and form the government.

History

The history of the Indian National Congress falls into two distinct eras:

• The pre-independence era, when the party was at the forefront of the struggle for independence and was instrumental in the whole of India;
• The post-independence era, when the party has enjoyed a prominent place in Indian politics, ruling the country for 48 of the 60 years since independence in 1947.

In the pre-independence era, the congress was divided in two groups, moderate and activist. The moderates were more educated and wanted to win people's faith to lead the nation to independence without bloodshed.the activists however wanted to follow a revolutionary path and make it a militant organization.

The pre-independence era

First session of Indian National Congress, Bombay, 28-31, December, 1885.

Main article: Indian National Congress - Freedom Era

Founded in 1885 with the objective of obtaining a greater share in government for educated Indians, the Indian National Congress was initially not opposed to British rule. The Congress met once a year during December. Indeed, it was a Scotsman, Allan Octavian Hume, who brought about its first meeting in Bombay, with the approval of Lord Dufferin, the then-Viceroy.

Womesh Chandra Bannerjee was the first President of the INC. The first meeting was scheduled to be held in Pune, but due to a plague outbreak there, the meeting was later shifted to Bombay. The first session of the INC was held from 28–31 December 1885, and was attended by 72 delegates.

A few years down the line, the demands of INC became more radical in the face of constant opposition from the government, and the party became very active in the independence movement. By 1907 the party was split into two halves: the Garam Dal (literally "hot faction") of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, or Extremists , and the Naram Dal (literally "soft faction") of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, or Moderates , distinguished by their attitude towards the British. Under the influence of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Congress became the first integrated mass organization in the country, bringing together millions of people against the British. The Indian National Congress was the only political party to provide harmony to all the sects of the Indian society^{[citation needed]}

In its time as the nation's leader in the freedom struggle, it produced the nation's greatest leaders. Before the Gandhi Era came leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mohammed Ali Jinnah (later leader of the Muslim League and instrumental in the creation of Pakistan), all starting with the first legendary icon of Indians: Dadabhai Naoroji, the president of the sister Indian National Association and later the first Indian Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons. The Congress was transformed into a mass movement by Surendranath Banerjea and Sir Henry Cotton during the partition of Bengal in 1905 and the resultant Swadesi Movement. Gandhi came back from South Africa in 1915 and with the help of the moderate group led by Ghokhale became the President of the Congress and formed an alliance with the Khilafat Movement. In protest a number of leaders went out of Congress. Khilafat movement ended up in a disaster and the Congress was split. A number of leaders Chittaranjan Das, Annie Besant,Motilal Nehru, went out of The Congress to set up the Swaraj Party.

With the rise of Mahatma Gandhi's popularity and his Satyagraha art of revolution came Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (the nation's first Prime Minister), Dr. Rajendra Prasad (the nation's first President), Khan Mohammad Abbas Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Chakravarti Rajgopalachari, Jivatram Kripalani and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. With the already existing nationalistic feeling combined with Gandhi's popularity the Congress became a forceful mass organization in the country, bringing together millions of people by specifically working against caste differences, untouchability, poverty, and religious and ethnic boundaries. Although predominantly Hindu, it had members from virtually every religion, ethnic group, economic class and linguistic group. In 1939,Subhas Chandra Bose, the elected president in both 1938 and 1939 was expelled from the Congress for his socialist views and The Congress was reduced to a pro-Business group financed by the business houses of Birla and Bajaj. At the time of the Quit India movement, the Congress was undoubtedly the strongest political and revolutionary organization in India, but the Congress disassociated itself from the Quit India movement within a few days. The Indian National Congress could not claim to be the true representative of the Indian people as other parties were there as well particularly theHindu Mahasabha, Azad Hind Sarkar, Forward Bloc.

The 1929 Lahore session under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru holds special significance as in this session "Poorna Swaraj" (complete independence) was declared as the goal of INC. 26 January 1930 was declared as "Poorna Swaraj Diwas," Independence Day although the British remained in India a number of years longer. It was to commemorate this date particularly that The Indian Constitution was formally adopted on 26 January 1950 (even though it was passed on 26 November 1949).However in 1929 Srinivas Iyenger was expelled from the Congress for demanding full independence, not justhome rule as demanded by Gandhi.

After the First World War the party became associated with Mahatma Gandhi, who remained its unofficial, spiritual leader and mass icon even as younger men and women became party president. The party was in many ways an umbrella organization, sheltering within itself radical socialists, traditionalists and even Hindu and Muslim conservatives, but all the socialists (including the Congress Socialist Party, Krishak Praja Party, Swarajya Party members) were expelled along with Subhas Chandra Bose in 1939 by Gandhi.

Members of the Congress initially supported the sailors who led the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny. However they withdrew support at the critical juncture, when the mutiny failed.

During the INA trials of 1946, the Congress helped to form the INA Defence Committee, which forcefully defended the case of the soldiers of the Azad Hind government. The committee declared the formation of the Congress' defence team for the INA and included famous lawyers of the time, including Bhulabhai Desai, Asaf Ali, and Jawaharlal Nehru.

A tribute to Y.S.R - Kadapa Tiger

Dr.Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy, born on 8th of July 1949, to late Sri Y.S.Raja Reddy in a small town in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh, Pulivendula was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. He was the member of the Indian National Congress and was elected from the Pulivendula Assembly Constituency of Kadapa District to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. In May 2004, he was sworn in as the Chief Minister. He was popularly known as Y.S.R. As a charismatic mass leader, he had carved a niche for himself in state politics. Dr.Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy was known for his consummate dedication and allegiance towards the upliftment of the downtrodden. Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy strongly believed that human life was a blessing provided by the Almighty and it is the duty of human beings to share ones blessings with others, by serving the less privileged sections of the society

Rajsekhar Reddy was the second of five brothers. In the beginning the Reddy family were land-owners of southern Andhra Pradesh but their status improved during the 1970s and 1980s by mining of barite which is an industrial mineral used in the oil industry. According to the mother of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, it was Reddy’s grandfather who was converted to Christianity by a British missionary, Father Rolls. Right from his student days Rajasekhara Reddy showed interest in politics. He was made the President of the Students union while he was studying in the M R Medical College at Gulbarga, Karnataka. Reddy also served as the leader of the Association of House Surgeons in S V Medical College, Tirupati. For a brief period, he had also served as a Medical Officer at the Jammalamadugu Mission Hospital after finishing his MBBS in the Diocese of Nandyal. In the year 1971, YSR married Smt. Vijayalakshmi and the couple bore son Jagan Mohan Reddy who is presently a politician. They also have a daughter, named, Sharmila Y.S Vivekananda Reddy. In the year 1973, at Pulivendula, Reddy had established a medium sized hospital comprising of 70-beds and named it after his father Y.S. Raja Reddy. Even today the hospital continues to serve the poor. His family had established a polytechnic and a degree college in Pulivendula, which in the later stages were handed over to the renowned Loyola group. Sharp insight and apt business acumen had given YSR Reddy immense success in the world of business.

YSR entered active politics in 1978. He contested in four elections to be a part of the State Legislative Assembly and contested the same number of times to become a Member of the Lower House of Parliament. YSR had won all the elections in which he had participated. Reddy had an eventful 25-year political career which he started as a samithi president and later served as a youth congress leader. At the age of 28, he won the ensuring elections in the year 1978 with the ticket of the Indian National Congress. For a brief period he served as minister in Tanguturi Anjaiah cabinet. Then the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi entrusted the potential leader with as the Pradesh Congress Committee president at the age of 34. For four times Dr. Reddy represented Kadapa constituency as Member of Parliament of India and as a Member of Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh and also same number of times from the Pulivendula constituency. The timeline of his political career unfurls the fact that Reddy had never lost a single election.

He was a man of the masses and raised his voice for the many helpless people. He also made the Government to alter many of the steps which it had taken, in the assembly. While bringing out issues facing peasants, weavers, Dalits, youth and women, YSR played an instrumental role in planning several mass struggles. He unyieldingly fought for the approval of awaiting irrigation projects, particularly in the backward Rayalaseema region. All these earned him a special place with the farmers. In the name of "reforms", he continuously struggled against certain anti-people economic measures that were sought to be introduced and which included the frequent increases in power tariff and unsystematic privatization of public sector units. Such steps took him far more than just a street-smart politician.

Even as a beginner in the legislature, on the demand of the solution to the water causes YSR rallied all the Congress MLAs from the Rayalaseema region and led an indefinite hunger strike. He also took up padayatra for 64 days that stretched to an extent of 1500 km from Chevella in the Telengana to Ichchapuram in Srikakulam district in the summer of 2003. In order to protest against the hike in power charges the 14 day hunger strike which Reddy carried out is still afresh. His Yatra took him closer to the poor and rural people and at the same time, it was well received by all the sections of the society.

After taking oath as Chief Minister in 2004 he allotted a large share to the agriculture sector. His policies were always centered on defending agriculture by giving sops to small and marginalised farmers, along with building up new infrastructure. During the first two years of his tenure a large sum of Rs.16000 crore were spent for building of irrigation projects. Chief Minister Reddy had designed programmes to help the poor and the agriculturists.

As an election promise to the farmers of Andhra Pradesh, he had implemented `Jalayagnam` to enhance the area under irrigation within five years. The project comprised a number of irrigation projects, like construction of new reservoirs and lift irrigation systems, and through canals to divert water from major rivers. The project also included connecting of the two main rivers like the Lord Krishna and the Godavari. A Special Package of Relief & Rehabilitation was announced by the state government for the distressed farmers. The State government had also set up a lot of projects aiming at economic empowerment of farmers, “Agricultural Technology Mission" (ATM) with effect from 15th January 2006 was one of the main projects out of the many. On 30th March 2006, Reddy had also launched a programme namely Indiramma programme. According to this scheme the Government was supposed to build roads, construct houses and classrooms, and take up other development programmes under this project. The grant of IIT to the state was also announced by him amongst the cheers of members in the state assembly. He was also successful in bringing the US consulate to Hyderabad. As a Chief Minister, he can pompously be claimed to be the personification of a politician who, focused on the coming generations and had earned the status of a statesman.

YSR Reddy reflected the spirit of a true Indian whose words were reflected through his actions. His thought was dressed with all that was modern and dignifying. YSR as a Chief Minister expected bureaucrats to do their jobs particularly, and present before him only facts that are sheared of all publicity-oriented and scheming figures. It was his humane principle that impelled him to take revolutionary steps to guarantee delivery of social security pensions to the needy in the first week of every month. The ultimate objective of any programme that was carried out under the democratic set-up of Reddy was promptness and well being of the people. He wanted to balance the approach towards giving thrust to information technology, biotechnology and all sectors that enhance industrial and agricultural production.

Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy died in a helicopter crash in the dense Nallamala forest on 3rd of September, 2009. His unexpected death has been a loss not only to the state of Andhra Pradesh but also to the entire country as a whole. On 2nd of September, 2009, Reddy’s helicopter went missing at around 9. 35 a.m. and were broken from all kinds of communication. Finally the destroyed chopper could be spotted only after 24 hours of the incident. As the wrecked copter was discovered it was found that all the passengers aboard including the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh had died. All the national leaders have expressed deep grievance on the death of the great persona Dr. Y.S Rajsekhar Reddy.

Odarpu Yatra Sees Huge Turnout

10th Apr, 2010: Following the huge public turnout on the first day of Jagan Mohan Reddy's 'Odarpu' yatra inspite of the sweltering heat on Friday, the second day is expected to continue with equal vigour.

Starting in Bhimavaram at noon, Jagan is all set to unravel more statues built in honor of YSR, amid a conglomeration of people continuing to pledge their support for the Congress leader. While meeting around 14 families, he is scheduled to visit Narsapur, Palakollu, Achanta, Tanuku and Tadepalligudem today, apart from places where he missed in his tour yesterday out of time constraints.

Jagan is said to have continued to meet local residents gain their condolences all night upto 6 am. The first day of the yatra was marked as successful, as supporters of his father Y S Rajashekhar Reddy swarmed to places Jagan arrived at.