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1984 General Elections. Those days national parties used to be given 30 minutes on Doordarshan to convey their election manifesto. ABV's telecast advertised by @BJP4India. A small 3"x 2" box in the middle pages of the @IndianExpress 
In 1984, @INCIndia called out the opposition as united by greed and not a common ideology. Said "Give ideology a hand". Now, what is #Mahaghatbandhan dear @RahulGandhi? A common greed platform.
Another 1984 elections ad by @INCIndia. Supremely ironical. Asks the voters "will your groceries list in the future include acid bulbs, iron rods and daggers". The country was just fresh from the horrible 1984 Nov Sikh riots, and @RahulGandhi's party asks us this question.
Another ironical ad. Says "India could be your vote away from unity or separatism". Yes, the same party which is in cahoots with the Muslim League party in Kerala, and has supported the Bharat teri tukde louts told that in the past.
And this. @INCIndia's manifesto. Compare it with this election manifesto, nothing has changed. Between 1984 and 2019, Cong ruled for about 2 decades, and no change in the lives of the people.
During those days, Cong at least wanted India's growth. Now the current manifesto has thrown out the growth story and wants to hand out doles to its preferred votebanks, that too paid by upper caste taxpayers.
The optics of this ad is good. Read the fine print. India grew at 2.6%, marginally over the population growth rate it says, and tom toms it as a big achievement. The misnomer "Hindu growth rate" should have been replaced with "secular growth rate". Cong was responsible for it.
And this, Cong those days was concerned about our sovereignty. The wasted decade 2004-2014 saw incompetent people like AK Antony who did nothing for the defence, and now, its blind opposition in arms procurement. Now Cong does not seem to be concerned about our nation's defence.
Reserving the best for the last. Irony's grave has committed suicide. @INCIndia talks about merit - a party led by a dynasty even now, a party which said that the first right of resources belong to minorities (which is decided by birth, not merit), a party which wants more quotas
And what was the opposition Janata Party's reaction? "Beware of the one hand that does not know what the other hand is doing". Still very current and relevant to this day.
And of course, Cong discourse has always been about dictatorship. The son of Indira Gandhi, the architect of #Emergency talks about the threat of dictatorship. The narrative has not changed to this day. Fascism and all those fancy words are still being bandied about by Cong.
Still searching for the infamous "Can you trust a Sikh taxi driver" poster of the campaign launched by Cong in 1984, in the musty library archives of the State Central Library. Meanwhile read this article by @KanchanGupta da. An old one, but relevant. dailypioneer.com/2015/columnist…
