38 SOCIAL SCIENTIST represented by the 'Independent Travancore' slogan cannot, of course, be taken into account in a Congress Party handout. Neither can the anti-feudal armed struggle of the Telengana people against the Nizam, who did not accede his 'dominion' to the Indian Union until 1948. The capsule hails the reorganization of states on a linguistic basis: the Congress had wanted it that way! That at every step the people of many states had to fight, that blood flowed in cities such as Bombay and Ahmedabad, that Potti Sriramulu had to lay down his life before the government would move on the matter of linguistic states are tiresome details that need not clutter up a historical analysis meant for the denizens of a future civilization. This capsule speaks of 'secularism5 as the exclusive monopoly of the Indian National Congress and the weapon used by it against the Muslim League. The contribution of the Congress Party over the years to the practice of communalism, in order to divide the people, is passed over. From the time when Tilak and others campaigned on an openly communal platform, raising revivalist slogans such as Ganesh Puja, the Congress has used religion to split the militant unity of the broad masses and to isolate large sections of the Muslim masses. In India since 1947, while buying and bartering 'the Muslim vote,' the Congress regime has had an interested hand in almost every communal riot in the country, often coming out on the streets in open alliance with organizations such as the Jana Sangh and the Shiv Sena. Twentysix years after 1947, the ruthless suppression of the rights of scheduled castes and tribes continues. The atrocities at Kilvenmani, where 44 agricultural labourers were burnt alive at the direct instance of Congress landlords, is one of the more horrifying examples of the regular acts of violence employed to suppress the rights of socially backward sections. Despite all this, as the socio-economic situation worsens, life asserts itself. Struggles of the underprivileged burst out in different parts of the country in retaliation against the growing offensive of the big capitalist landlords and the Central and state governments. Economic On the record of 26 years of Congress rule the time capsule says: What is significant in the process that has been occurring in the country during the past quarter of a century is the emergence of the signs of forward movement in the economy which remained stagnant for nearly two centuries prior to independence. This movement in the forward direction is noticeable in almost all spheres of the national activity. Facts, however, speak louder. Twentysix years after independence the 'tryst with destiny' thatjawaharlal Nehru talked about remains unmet and the socio-economic programmes are a sub-continental failure. Unemployment that gallops like a horse without a bit; increasing underemployment; rising prices of essential commodities, growing inequality