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Journalism of Courage
Four years ago this week, the Congress found itself victorious in the general elections proving every opinion poll in the country wrong. Perhaps, in retrospect, more unexpected was the ease with which the Congress-led coalition took power at the Centre. Hushing its traditional distaste for coalitions expressed just six years before at its Pachmarhi conclave, the Congress had, in the run-up to the elections, stitched up key alliances with regional parties. In many ways, the most iconic image of the party8217;s accommodative resolve was Sonia Gandhi8217;s visit to neighbour Ram Vilas Paswan8217;s house. It had taken the Congress some years before it realised that its unipolar moment had well ended by the mid-8217;90s. And by the 2004 elections, it had recognised that she who sewed up the better alliances would hold New Delhi. So, assorted regional leaders bred for decades on anti-Congressism 8212; the Lalu Prasad Yadavs, the Karunanidhis 8212; were brought on board with generous seat- and power-sharing deals.
By all indicators, the coalition has held. As it prepares for the next Lok Sabha elections, rumour is already rife that the Congress is agreeable to some sort of understanding with one of its fiercest foes, the Samajwadi Party. The fact of just the speculation points not merely to the Congress8217;s open mind on seeking new ways of gaining a political base in Uttar Pradesh, which it has not managed for four years despite inducting Rahul Gandhi for the exercise. It is also an indicator of the party8217;s confidence in its ability to take on and to manage difficult allies. After all, except for the always reluctant Chandrasekhar Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, hardly anyone has walked out of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, have they?
