Get rid of enemies within

PANKAJ SHARMA
23 May 2016

Unnecessary organs must be surgically removed from the otherwise healthy body of the Congress party.

Political parties have to spin narratives about their performances in elections. In light of the recent Assembly elections in five states, the Bharatiya Janata Party has sought to peddle the idea that it has garnered a pan-India presence. This is nothing more than a gimmick. 

Similarly, the spin masters in the Congress have sought to project data that it has actually won more seats than the BJP in these elections. Unfortunately, they are living in a fool’s paradise.

For the Congress, the writing is on the wall. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi urgently need to get rid of the amarbel within the party. Party president Sonia Gandhi revived her party after she took over the reins in 1998. Her tireless work enabled the Congress to form a government at the Centre for two consecutive terms.

 She has always been on the forefront of party affairs. Despite his experiments, which were sabotaged by party insiders, Rahul left no stone unturned to create a strong base for the party. There are numerous instances that attest to this fact. Unnecessary organs must be removed from the otherwise healthy body of the Congress party. 

If the party’s top leadership is doing such stellar work, why is the Congress passing through the worst political crisis in its history? Irrespective of what data analysts may suggest, the party is suffering. The party cadre has never been this demoralised. Despite previous setbacks, Congress workers had always carried a spark of hope that things would get better. But this time, I see them in the process of losing hope. This is dangerous for any organisation.

The numbers game might have many hidden facts that actually prove that the situation has not been too bad for the Congress. But the results that matter present a rather grim picture. The party must now do whatever it can to revive itself now or leave it to some miracle. It could also endorse the thesis that if India were a computer, Congress is its default program. 

Does a party with such a long and storied history, deserve to be parked in the “by default” waiting room? And, can’t we see that the “by default” magnet is shifting fast towards other regional players. In 30 Assembly elections held across the country after 2012, other regional parties have won 2195 seats—more than what Congress and BJP had secured. Congress could get only 871 and BJP got 1051 seats.  Senior party leaders have raised the need for a “surgery”. Equally, other leaders feel that there is no need of any “surgery”. 

Of course, there is strong need of a “surgery”. Unnecessary organs must be removed from the otherwise healthy body of the Congress party. A serious study must also be undertaken about the intentions behind bringing “outsiders” into the central corridors of the Congress party during past decade. 

Questions must be asked of all those who lobbied for them and accommodated outsiders’ disciples as candidates that lost badly in different elections. If you allow outsiders to run your home, the cost you pay is what the Congress has paid.

Clever minds have begun creating an atmosphere to pave the way for “gharwapsi” of all those who had left Congress in past decade. They want the likes of Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, and Jagan Reddy to come back to the party fold. The idea seems very innocent. But politics is politics. Who knows what the real idea behind it is? Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is a political force in Maharashtra. 

Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) again is a very strong political dispensation in Bengal. Jagan Reddy’s YSR Congress is an entity that cannot be ignored in Telangana. All of them were instrumental in strengthening the Congress at some time or the other. Pawar, Mamata, and Jagan’s father were the blue-eyed boys of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv, and Sonia respectively, once. Why should there be any harm if they all come back to their parental home?

But why will they do it? If they agree to merge their identities by homecoming, it will be with the sole intention of grabbing a pan-Indian brand—the Congress. After all, everybody knows that whatever the lows the Congress faces in days to come, it would be the second largest party with more seats in its kitty than now in 2019. In any situation, it would be the Congress which will lead the non-BJP front. The likes of Nitish Kumar, Mamta Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, and Navin Patnaik will possess almost an equal share in the numbers game separately. 

It will be a serious handicap in fulfilling their aspirations of reaching the top job. The utility for brand Congress lies there. There is no real threat from the BJP. But the Congress will have to come out from the clutches of the enemies within.

(The author is Editor and CEO of News Views India. Views expressedare strictly personal.)

Black hole of political etiquette

Pankaj Sharma

9 May 2016

Ad hominem attacks on Sonia Gandhi have reunited the Congress party

My 27 year-long stint in journalism, followed by a decade with the Congress, has told me that its members spend most of their time finding ways to weaken each other instead of strengthening the party. More than the political opponents, they are their own enemies. Despite the presence of such elements, isn’t it a miracle that the Congress party has remained intact two years after it suffered a devastating defeat in the general elections? Moreover, you have Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who comes up with new tricks to fulfill his dream of a “Congress-free” India.

 The BJP’s latest attempt includes an attempt to somehow frame party president Sonia Gandhi in the AugustaWestland scam.

But what’s interesting about the Congress is that all the quarreling factions come together whenever they sense any attack on their leadership. Therefore, recent attacks on the Congress leadership have refreshed the bond of unity among Congress party members across the country. Sonia Gandhi has proved herself to be the strongest integrating force within the Congress party, which she has led for the past 18 years. Modi and his political bouncers know this well. Therefore, a strategy to pin the blame on Sonia for the Augusta scam is on the top of their agenda. To achieve their goal, Modi, and his team have prepared a plan to distance themselves from the decisions made during the BJP government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In other words, the current NDA government will not hesitate to criticise the role of Vajpayee’s trusted lieutenants in the Augusta deal.

It is not only the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP that harbor hopes for a Congress-free India. For more than four decades, there are other forces other that have been working on a similar design. Even a novice can comprehend the dynamics of international conspiracies that resulted in the assignations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. At any given time, a political party has a nucleus around which the whole structure of the organisation stands. It does not require a rocket scientist to understand that the amount of damage to this nucleus directly translates into the weakening of a particular political party.

It’s not unique to Indian politics that a political party is perceived through its central face. Vajpayee’s credibility was in direct relation to the strength or weakness of the BJP as an organisation. It is the same with Narendra Modi now. Many regional parties are also perceived through the same equation. Any step towards freeing India from the clutches of any party would include getting rid of its central face. I’m not sure if one could achieve a BJP-free India by getting rid Modi’s leadership, but it could certainly be a major step. Similarly, if someone wants to work on his dream of a Congress-free India, he needs to deface Sonia Gandhi’s public image first.

Should ruling parties be given a free hand to ruin the political ideologies of others in a democracy? Sonia Gandhi did portend of dangerous times for Indian democracy while addressing the “Save Democracy March” at Jantar-Mantar last Friday. “People of India know how to answer high and mighty when all the limits of injustice are crossed,” she thundered. The real power of the Congress lies in its ability to bounce back after attacks from the outside, despite the fact that saboteurs exist within all levels of the party. Knowing this well, Sonia appealed to the party cadre to “reach out to every corner and expose the ugly designs of the ruling clan”.

Sonia struck a chord with millions of Congress workers when she spoke of her life-long struggle in politics. “We want to make it clear that they can keep trying to destroy democracy, but we will never let their dangerous intentions succeed,” she said. “They can keep taking steps to defame us, but we won’t bow down before the threats”.

In the past two years, political etiquette in this country has been pushed to the last rows. Ignoring the basic science of living in a democratic political system by keeping all ethics at bay will ultimately push India into the black hole of public administration. The mannerisms of any ruling party decide the shape of democracy, public life, and social response. 

To provide good quality non-partisan governance, one has to excuse himself from the presence of shallow and callow minded individuals. I think it’s high time the Prime Minister re-orient his focus on strengthening the fabric of democratic values, development, economic growth and dream of a pettiness-free India. India knows about the 56 inches chest Narendra Bhai. But let the country realise that you have an equally large heart too in it.

Writing the fifth chapter of India story

Pankaj Sharma
2 May 2016

Four Indian prime ministers have addressed the joint meeting of the US Congress in the past. How will Narendra Modi fare on June 8, 2016?

When Narendra Modi addresses the joint session of the US Congress on June 8, he will join the august league of four other Indian prime ministers. Rajiv Gandhi was the first prime minister who shared his dream of an India for the twenty-first century with the US Congress on June 13, 1985 when Ronald Reagan was US President.

“Freedom for India meant the ending of colonial subjugation and working for equality among all nations,” Rajiv Gandhi told the Senate and the House of Representatives. “Much of what we have done we have done ourselves. Ninety percent of the investment of our economy is financed from our own resources.” He also stressed on the ties that bound the two nations together. “The peoples of India and America are not allies in security strategies, but they are friends in larger human causes - freedom, justice and peace,” he said. Rajiv recalled how the American Revolution asserted the rights of man. He quoted Rabindranath Tagore to define nationalism and human brotherhood.

Rajiv received a thumping applause when he told the 99th US Congress: “I have been elected prime minister of India at a time when our nation stands poised for a new surge of growth. Our leaders in the past 30 years have established firm foundations on which we have now to build. India is an old country, but a young nation; and like the young everywhere, we are impatient. I am young and I too have a dream. I dream of an India—strong, self-reliant, and in the front rank of the nations of the world in the service of mankind. I am committed to realizing that dream through dedication, hard work, and the collective determination of our people.”

P.V. Narasimha Rao was the second Indian head of state to address the joint session of the US Congress on May 18, 1994. Bill Clinton was US President at that time. Rao presented a detailed blueprint of the reforms India had undergone in the few years preceding his address. “The histories of our two nations have been intertwined by the words and deeds of great men and women. Christopher Columbus set off to discover a new route to India, only to discover a new world. Out of that unintended discovery was born a great nation. Undaunted by, rather big difference, he discovered in his destination, Columbus remarked, this time with perfect accuracy, that the more you go East, the more you are assured to come upon the West. Thus, America has a special place in the Indian thinking, as a continent found further east of the known East. This direction is significant in its own way,” he said.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the third Indian prime minister, who addressed the US Congress on September 14, 2000. At that time, Bill Clinton was in his final term as President of the United States. Vajpayee began his speech with thanking the US “for the near-unique approach that you have adopted towards my country” and expressed hope for “deeper engagement with the USA”. He also reminded Americans that to more than a million and a half from India, America is now home and in turn, their industry, enterprise, and skills are contributing to the advancement of American society. “I see in the outstanding success of the Indian community in America, a metaphor of the vast potential that exists in Indo-US relations, and what we can achieve together,” Vajpayee said.

Rajiv Gandhi’s efforts to make Panchayati Raj a success story also found mention in Vajpayee’s speech. “For me, the most gratifying of the many achievements of Indian democracy has been the change it has brought to the lives of the weak and the vulnerable,” he said. “To give just one figure, in recent years, it has enabled more than a million women in small towns and distant villages to enter local elected councils and to decide on issues that touch upon their lives.”

Vajpayee also underlined the inbuilt strength of Indian economy and took a strong stand against terrorism. “There are forces outside our country that believe that they can use terror to unravel the territorial integrity of India. They wish to show that a multi-religious society cannot exist. No country has faced as ferocious an attack of terrorist violence as India has over the past two decades,” he said.

Dr. Manmohan Singh was next to address the joint session of the US Congress on July 19, 2005. Washington had a new president in George W. Bush. In his speech, Dr. Singh presented in detail the increasing interdependence in the era of globalization, the need to strengthen democracies across the world and to fight terrorism in unison. He also spoke at length about energy security, second green revolution and on issues of global governance.

“As democracies, we must work together to create the world in which democracies can flourish. This is particularly important because we are today faced with new threats such as terrorism, to which democracies are particularly vulnerable. Indian democracy has been fashioned around India’s civilizational ethos which celebrates diversity. Our society today is the culmination of centuries of assimilation of diverse peoples and ethnic groups. All the major religions of the world are represented in India. The real test of a democracy is not in what is said in the Constitution, but in how it functions on the ground. Democracy can only thrive in open and free societies. But open societies like ours are today threatened more than ever before by the rise of terrorism. The United States and India must work together in all possible forums to counter all forms of terrorism. We cannot be selective in this area. We must fight terrorism wherever it exists because terrorism anywhere threatens democracy everywhere,” he said.

Dr. Singh also firmly raised the demand for restructuring the United Nations Security Council. He told the US Congress: “Globalisation has woven a web of inter-connections across the world. This makes it all the more necessary that we evolve a system of global governance that carries credibility and commands legitimacy. The UN Security Council must be restructured as part of the reform process. The voice of the world’s largest democracy surely cannot be left unheard on the Security Council when the United Nations is being restructured.”

Let’s see how strongly Narendra Modi advocates India’s case before ‘his friend Barack’ on the second Wednesday of June 2016.