Sonia's Introspection

The first session of the Congress Working Committee proved that party leaders are still busy with Sonia, not the party, says M Abdul Hafiz

After the Congress' worst electoral debacle in history, the party president Sonia Gandhi's only visible reaction was her decision to introspect. It was an apt step in the context of the disaster she and her party suffered. For only an insight into what went wrong could rescue the party from its downhill slide. So in right earnest the party president conducted this introspection in two stages.

The first session of Congress Working Committee (CWC) held soon after the election was that for intropection. The meeting attended by all 24 members of the CWC was intended to be a soul-searching session of the party stalwarts. Its sober objective however turned into an embarrassing bout of blaming each other for the party's electoral debacle. Given the acrimonious atmosphere of the meeting, no answers were sought to individual charges levelled against each other and it ended without a positive outcome. The meeting appeared to be unplanned and eventually proved fetch.

But the fact for failure that unmistakable emerged from the charges and counter-charges during the meeting was the dubious role of coterie - a set of leaders close to Sonia Gandhi. It was alleged that the coterie used the party machinery to build a larger-than-life image of Sonia as a leader and forced the rank and file of the party to depend solely on her charisma. In the meeting the coterie, led by its leaders Arjun Singh, stubbornly defended that image even if Sonia failed to match it. After 1998 election in which the Congress won 140 seats, Sitaram Kesri was unceremoniously made the president. Many now look askance that no such fate awaits Sonia Gandhi though the party's tally has dipped to pathetic 112 in last election. There was however unanimity among the members to wait till the findings of an introspection committee for full fledged discussion on the issue.

Sonia in the meantime already entrusted a 11-member introspection committee headed by AK Antony, former chief minister of Kerala, to find out the causes of the poor performance of the Congress, which is still the most favoured party in India in terms of popular votes. Even in 1999, the party scored an enviable 28.4 per cent popular votes - highest among the votes scored by other parties. Recently where the introspection committee ceremonially submitted its 200-page report, it was another disappointment for the Congress. As it was feared from the beginning the committee diagnosed the ailing party apparently with all efforts to save the face of the presiding deity of 10 Janpath. It attributed the party's failure to a vague 'series of ill advised decisions' whose impact was magnified on account of 'organisational lapses'!

Among the ill advised decisions were those to support Rabridevi government in Bihar, the leader's meeting with AIADMK leader Jaylalita at a tea party in Delhi and the failure to form an alternative government al the Centre after the BJP-led government was defeated by a single vote. According to the report, the last factor was the most crucial and shook the electorate's confidence in Sonia Gandhi. Also crucial was the Congress' strident attack on Vajpayee government for the way the Kargil war was conducted although it received overwhelming public support.

The Congress, while agreeing to all the failures mentioned, could not however find any inkling of who was responsible for them. The committee carefully avoided noting the culpability of the leader. But in both the cases - failing to form an alternation government after declaring 'we have 272' outside Rastrya Pati Bhaban and attacking Vajpayee government - Sonia's role was singular and circle. But in the report she was shown as one who was "ill advised" and one who acted on bad advice. If anything, the advisers should be condemned but the leader is always inflatable.

The people are not quite convinced of the logic. Main Shankar Aiyer, the conveyor of the committee said that they were there not to investigate during fact finding across the country. But could there be a prescription without investigation? The sceptics wonder. The committee took care to ensure that the medicine prescribed for the sick party are palatable to its leaders - thus bringing many contradiction in the report many of which were covered up with the rich stock of vocabulary at the command of the committee's redoubtable convenor. There are also confusions as to who were responsible for 'organisation lapses.'

There is no direct answer to the question: why Congress got threshed in the election? The committee felt that the talks of debacle were vastly exaggerated. Because in 132 seats the Congress was defeated only marginally. But for only a few lakhs votes the party which came within the whisker of winning, could not become the single largest party. The argument does not satisfy the Congress workers who ask why a few lakhs more voters did not vote for Congress. The report went round and round the mulberry bush in answering such question.

It is a tragedy that a vital post-election exercise undertaken by Sonia Gandhi thus ended in a fiasco. The efforts continue to strengthen Sonia, not the party. Surrounded by sycophants, nostalgists and leaders lacking grassroots support a battled Sonia Gandhi maintains at the most the family lineage in Indian politics.