Commentary/T V R Shenoy
For all their bombast and bluster, there really isn't any Congress leader
with a spine stiffer than plasticine
Two Congressmen were seen in a cemetery, walking
slowly from grave to grave writing down the names of the deceased.
They paused over one weatherworn tombstone where the elements
had made the name almost indecipherable.
"Come on," one finally said impatiently,
"one name more or less doesn't make a difference."
"What do you mean?" his companion demanded
indignantly, "This fellow has as much right as any of the
others to vote in the Congress organisational elections!"
Of course, it didn't really happen. But if you think
that is a whopper you ought to see some of the mud being flung
around Congress offices across the country. Dead men, live children,
even some who never existed outside their creators' imaginations -- all
of them feature on the party rolls.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee jestingly referred to the Congress
as the vaisyas of the modern caste system. But come election time and the party is miraculously transformed to brahmins,
with every Congressman worth the name reciting the 'Rig' Veda!
Charges of rigging and bogus membership are flowing
in from every state. In Punjab, the president of the local unit
quit in frustration. In West Bengal, the redoubtable Mamta Bannerjee
has announced she is boycotting the elections. In Delhi,
Congress MLAs and corporators demonstrated against the Pradesh
Congress Committee chief. And Jagannath Mishra is on the warpath in
Bihar.
I could take you through every state and Union territory
in the country, but why bother? The trend is clear -- what is happening
in the Congress is simply a farce masquerading as elections.
The root of the matter is that Sitaram Kesri and
his cronies simply didn't want polls at all. They would have been
perfectly content to let Kesri's 'provisional' status continue
forever.
The Congress 'High Command' found its hand forced
by the Election Commission. Having bamboozled the President of
India -- where is the promised coordination committee? --
Kesri was confident of taking other Constitutional authorities
for a ride.
When the EC reminded him of the
looming May 31 deadline, the Congress president waved it away.
He arrogantly decided on his own that July 15 was time enough.
(And when that date came around, Kesri would probably have opted
for another postponement, and then yet another.)
But Nirvachan Sadan proved to be tougher than Rashtrapati
Bhawan. The EC all but threatened to strip the
Congress of its status as a national party and the possible loss
of its symbol. At which point, the Congress promptly caved in,
accepting June 15.
Unfortunately, the EC can do no
more than insist on organisational polls being held. It can't
conduct them too.
This allows Kesri considerable leeway as
he struggles to consolidate his hold on the Congress. He has used
his post to appoint his own men as the returning officers in every
state. These nominees in turn carefully overlook the glaring irregularities.
The result, to quote Ghulam Nabi Azad, is ''total
harmony at the local level." According to the Congress
general secretary, up to 99 per cent of the block-level units have already
reached a consensus on the names for block president, four district-level
delegates, and one pradesh delegate.
Azad hasn't bothered to explain how the
party managed this miracle. In the days of its glory, the Congress
used to witness fierce battles in the organisational polls.
Subhas Chandra Bose defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya
in the teeth of Mahatma Gandhi's opposition. Purushottamdas Tandon
beat Nehru's candidate Acharya Narendra Dev in the fight for
the presidency. And even in Indira Gandhi's authoritarian day,
it was possible for Chandra Shekhar to be elected to the central
election committee. (How many Congressmen remember the existence
of such a body today?)
If neither Mahatma Gandhi nor Indira Gandhi could
have it all their own way, is it really possible that
Kesri can pull it off? Can he, in fact, impose a rigged 'consensus'
(the Congress' favourite word) on the party?
Depressingly for the Congress, yes he can. For all
their bombast and bluster, there really isn't any Congress leader
with a spine stiffer than plasticine. They could probably overwhelm
Kesri if they combine, but they distrust each other too much.
(Sonia Gandhi is probably the only one with the stature
to challenge Kesri directly with any hope of victory. Is that
why the 'provisional' president is so careful to slip in the fact
she is only a 'primary' member -- automatically ineligible
for office?)
'Trust' is the key word here. Kesri doesn't trust
his own partymen to make the right decision. The party at large
doesn't trust Kesri to provide the kind of leadership that will
lead them back to power.
All of which leads up to just one question: if Congressmen
don't trust each other enough to hold honest polls, how on earth
do they expect the voters of India to trust them?
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