Organisational polls in the Congress party have seldom been suspected of being vehicles of change. The fact is they routinely perpetuate p...
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Organisational polls in the Congress party have seldom been suspected of being vehicles of change. The fact is they routinely perpetuate prevalent power equations. In the run-up to another such exercise, attempts are afoot to manipulate the process so that it springs no unanticipated upsets. The recent appointments of the pradesh returning officers for the organisational polls, especially in the bigger states, reportedly bear the imprint of the all-powerful Arjun Singh-Vincent George combine.
The PROs8217; role is crucial 8212; they supervise the election of AICC and PCC delegates and are the final authority on election-related matters in the states. If this hectic backroom manoeuvring is any indication, inner-party elections may be all but over within the Congress long before they have actually begun. While the Congress has always lacked inner-party democracy, there is something especially ominous about the determined attempts by the coterie, or a faction of it, to hijack the approaching organisational elections. Never has the Congress been as dispirited and disunited within, nor as irrelevant and marginalised without as it is today.
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The party8217;s primary membership has reduced by more than half; the active membership list is similarly depleted. These waning figures testify to a massive erosion of base. They point to the complete lack of enthusiasm for membership drives at ground level, especially in non-Congress ruled states, and the severe factionalism that paralyses most state units today. As workers dwindle and leaders proliferate, the party is increasingly preoccupied with itself. It is a long time since it gave voice to an issue that could be regarded to be of popular concern; on most of the national issues on which it has been called upon to take a stand, it has been hopelessly incoherent. More than two years after the Pokharan tests, the Congress has not been able to articulate a lucid position on the nuclear issue; it continues to flounder on matters of economic policy as well. Had it been asked to do so, the Vajpayee government could probably not have scripted a better opposition for itself. In this dismal scenario ofall-pervasive dysfunctionality, free and fair organisational elections could give India8217;s oldest party another chance. They could help it energise itself and inject some internal vibrancy in time to face the Assembly polls to several crucial states in the coming year.
At the very least, by opening up some space for challenge and accommodating a modicum of dissent, they could provide a necessary pressure vent. The question is: will an insecure leader and her powerful courtiers allow the party to reinvent itself? Will the Ram Niwas Mirdha-led and somewhat grandly titled Central Election Authority be allowed to conduct a free and fair poll? Or will the entirely self-serving machinations of a select few be allowed to triumph yet again at the party8217;s cost? Should the party decide to seize the moment, there is time still to rein in the Arjun Singhs and the Vincent Georges. It is, perhaps, still not too late.
