Clueless in Congress country

She is not. She appears to sincerely believe that people care more about the break up of the Eastern Railway than they do about improved railway services. What about a dharna outside the Prime Minister’s Office against our appalling safety record, which is said to be one of the worst in the world?

Clearly, as a former Railway minister she has not even noticed this or the fact that it would get more public support than the cause she currently espouses. No wonder her Trinamul Congress was thrashed in the West Bengal elections and if the Prime Minister is wise he should graciously let her leave the National Democratic Alliance, once more, and return to her real party, Congress.

The Congress and Mamata are well matched because what she does at a silly, mofussil level our leading opposition party succeeds, every time, in doing at a much more important level. The result is that almost not once in the three years that Congress has been our main opposition party have we heard from it a sensible comment on any major issue.

Whether on Kashmir, the economy, foreign policy or even the nuclear issue they offer us not an alternative policy or a new agenda but just Pavlovian opposition: what the government does they automatically oppose.

So, last week, because the Vajpayee government allowed Colin Powell to come to Delhi and because he said Kashmir is an international issue (which it is) the Congress Party was up in arms in Parliament.

There was the usual noise and fury for a few moments and then Sonia’s flock retired to look for some other non-issue to make a fuss about. Perhaps, they are even of this moment in consultations with Mamata.

Nowhere is the failure to find real issues more evident than in Gujarat. I referred to this in last week’s column (Don’t let Modi put violence to vote) because I believe Gujarat to be the most important political issue that confronts us. I would like to discuss in greater detail the Congress Party’s failure to understand the importance of Gujarat either in its own political interest or that of the country.

Gujarat is so important because it will affect every other political and economic issue that faces India. It has obvious consequences in Kashmir and in our relations with Pakistan and Bangladesh but equally serious, less obvious ones, on the economy and the future of the Indian subcontinent in general.

To understand why, please remember that we spent the seventies and eighties almost entirely on issues of a communal/ethnic nature raised because of what was happening in Punjab, Kashmir and Ayodhya.

Luckily, this led us to the verge of bankruptcy in 1991 so P V Narasimha Rao had to (against his socialist nature, he now tells us) initiate a process of economic liberalization. This led to a mini economic boom and changed the political agenda so dramatically that right down to our smallest, remotest states economic reforms became the political agenda.

The happy result was that the Indian economy grew faster than it had ever done and there was real hope that prosperity was not some hopeless, futuristic dream.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and more specifically Narendra Modi and his patron-in-chief, L K Advani, have succeeded in changing the agenda back to ethnic strife. They have done this because in the higher echelons of the BJP there is recognition that governance is not the party’s forte so they need to return to their ‘‘unique identity’’ to woo voters back.

The key is Gujarat where Modi is not even attempting to hide the fact that his ‘‘handling’’ of the recent anti-Muslim violence is his elction manifesto.

If Sonia Gandhi had real political skills instead of only those acquired by marriage she would have been sitting in Gujarat these past months. Her minions who spend their time making foolish comments on Kashmir and Colin Powell would have been ordered into the ravaged mohallas of Ahmedabad and Baroda and told to ensure that they were seen bringing help, rehabilitation and communal harmony.

She could have made Modi’s pogroms the symbol of the BJP and I, at least, have no doubt that Congress would then have stood a fair chance of winning whenever elections are held.

If Sonia has failed to seize the moment it has to be on account of political stupidity, a la Mamata, rather than design. I say this because in the one brief, political discussion I have had with her since she became Congress President I asked her why she wanted to be in politics. And, in almost these exact words she said ‘‘the BJP could grow into a monster and I felt somebody had to try and stop them’’. This conversation was, alas, held with Renuka Chaudhuri, that ultimate political hot air balloon, ranting in the background about how journalists (i.e. moi) knew nothing about politics because they did not stand for elections, so I could not pursue the discussion more seriously.

And, perhaps, it’s true that us hacks know less about politics than politicians do but if Mamata, Sonia and Renuka are examples of those who know more, God help us.

Respond to tavleensingh@expressindia.com