Perhaps this is what they call psychological warfare. Well before celebrations of a successful Operation 2003 can fade out, the BJP has loudly begun on Mission 2004. These are days when the BJP is filling the air with plans, strategies, soundbites. Days, when the Congress must seem a terribly still corner to be in. But wait, they say the Pranab Mukherjee Committee report on the party’s electoral debacle is on its way and it will advocate the need for Sonia’s party to forge alliances to take on the BJP.So is this really an extraordinary moment for the grand old party? Or hasn’t the Congress already been hereabouts before? After all, the Shimla Sankalp reached after the party’s hyped chintan some months ago was also touted to be the party’s declaration of its willingness to see the writing on the wall. Even then, the talk was of the coming together of all “secular forces” to take on the BJP. And of a Congress confidently consecrating the distance travelled from Pachmarhi. Wasn’t the to-ally-or-not-to debate settled back then? Perhaps it wasn’t. Or perhaps, it is just that the Congress needs to keep saying it out loud because it’s a good way of putting off the process of actually getting down to it. Almost any Congressman who is still thinking knows that the party position would have looked much healthier on the final scorecard even in the essentially bi-polar contests in the states that just went to the polls if it had tied up with the Others, with the BSP or even the Gondwana Gantantra Party in Madhya Pradesh, for instance. Pre-poll alliances with the BSP/SP, DMK, NCP would help in Lok Sabha Elections 2004. But that’s the easier part.To form durable coalitions, the Congress must subscribe to a coalition culture. The High Command must accommodate—almost a contradiction in terms. Also, there must be a mature and clear sighted cost-benefit assessment. After all, the Congress is structurally constrained in forging alliances as compared to the BJP. Given its all-India spread, for the Congress, any ally at the Centre is also, and at the same time, a rival in the state. In alliance, it must perform a far more precarious balancing act than the BJP. The Congress needs to get down to it. The party’s already heard what Pranab Mukherjee is going to say.
