Committee raj

When in doubt, former Congress president P. V. Narasimha Rao did nothing. In a similar quandary, the present party chief does a bit of ev...

When in doubt, former Congress president P. V. Narasimha Rao did nothing. In a similar quandary, the present party chief does a bit of everything. So the Maharashtra imbroglio ends with the appointment of a new MPCC president who is not quite a friend of Sharad Pawar nor yet an enemy and 10 MLAs being told their conduct was incorrect but not terribly so. Presumably the individuals involved in the Mumbai and Delhi manoeuvres can all claim to have come out ahead. Paradoxically, it is not evident that the Congress party itself is any healthier for this.

In Maharashtra where the Congress seemed within striking distance of wresting power from the BJP and Shiv Sena at the next Assembly poll, if not sooner, everything will now depend on how smoothly Pawar and Prataprao Bhosale can establish an equation. Although a politician of long-standing in Maharashtra, Bhosale owes his rise to Sonia Gandhi rather than the usual process of political deal-making in the state Congress. Left to themselves, he and Pawar willprobably work out a modus vivendi. But if they fail because Sonia Gandhi and her advisers try to pursue their own agendas through Bhosale, the old Congress demon of factionalism could surface again to wreck party prospects as it did, dramatically, in 1995.

The remarkable feature of Sonia Gandhi8217;s reorganisation of pradesh Congress units is the supplanting of even nominal democratic procedures by a Delhi-centric committee system. It is not exactly Indira Gandhi8217;s method but a variant. Seven PCC chiefs have been appointed in the last month without going through the traditional Congress motions of trying to elect them at state level, followed by a stalemate and appeals to the wisdom of the high command. Of course, the condition of the Congress party organisation in states like UP and Bihar leaves no alternative to high command diktat. But five other state units 8212; Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh 8212; would surely have benefitted by the decentralisation of decision-making. It ishard to see how moribund units can be revived if they are not encouraged to start solving their own problems.

Factionalism will not disappear whichever method is followed. But there are definite advantages in keeping the high command out of local quarrels as much as possible. What the committee system invites instead is the involvement of a number of politicians who have no real responsibility for state affairs and therefore cannot be held accountable for their decisions. Sonia Gandhi, barricaded behind some 14 or so committees on party reorganisation and policy issues, has the best of all possible worlds. She has access to all the advice she needs but can choose to reject or accept it and still be seen to be functioning with a consensus. This is not a very reliable form of collective leadership and it shows in the vacillation on a number of national policy issues from the bomb to Ayodhya to the women8217;s Bill. The Congress is going to have to decide pretty soon whether its new committees are holdingoperations while the education of Sonia Gandhi progresses or are intended actually to run the organisation.