Choice before Congress

As the decisions at its last meeting show, the Congress Working Committee cannot be accused of living in a dream world. That is a positive...

As the decisions at its last meeting show, the Congress Working Committee cannot be accused of living in a dream world. That is a positive sign. But while it is essential to be realistic about its options in the Assembly polls due shortly in Bihar, Orissa, Haryana and Manipur, it is not sufficient. The CWC is going to need more toughness and skill than it has shown evidence of in order to meet the challenge of these elections.

It is quite pointless tying itself in knots over the Pachmarhi declaration, saying it will adhere to it barring minor exceptions here and there. It all sounds rather lame. When the Congress leadership has itself done so much to render Pachmarhi meaningless from tea-partying with Jayalalitha in order to topple the Vajpayee government to tying up with Laloo Prasad Yadav for the last Lok Sabha polls why fuss with abstinence? The fact is the Congress has no choice at this time but to go solo. But everyone knows Pachmarhi will be abandoned at the first opportunity. Regardless of theclaim that it will only look kindly on ideological soul-mates, it is apparent that alliances will be made wherever possible and Pachmarhi be damned.

Everywhere high principles are being undermined by low cunning. Once again the endeavour is to set high standards in the selection of candidates. For the record the party is committed to clean candidates, new faces and a decentralised selection process. All this should be welcome to Congress rank and file and supporters because it is an important way of refashioning the party.

The dominance of old, out-of-touch and often discredited leaders must be broken. The Congress8217; image as the reliquary of the hopeless, incompetent and corrupt needs to be changed. But those who control the levers of power are already sabotaging reform by urging that winnability8217; should be the prime consideration in choosing candidates. Having gone through the motions of pin-pointing the causes of its election failures, the party is acting as though nothing more need be done.

TheAntony committee report is in danger of being converted into nothing more than a mantra for all to mumble piously. There will be no real reform if the leadership does not take risks, if it does not make a special effort to change the way things are done, if it does not insist on clean, talented young candidates. Party power-brokers talk of the primacy of political compulsions since they like high priests are the ones with exclusive knowledge about such things. It is how they make themselves indispensable.

Unless Sonia Gandhi has the courage to resist their advice and stick to the recommendations of the Anthony committee, the Congress may as well say goodbye to reforms. Another factor that surely works against the Congress in elections is the difficulty in determining its political character. What does it stand for? What particular programmes does it intend to pursue in each state going to the polls? In Bihar, for example, the Congress is looking for methods of reviving party structures and for tacticalalliances. Both jobs may be easier if it was clear what the Congress proposed to do about the state8217;s innumerable problems. In any case it is time more thought was given to ways of improving people8217;s lives.