Congress poster boys

That most interesting of the many political breeds in India, the worshipful, exuberantly loyal Congressman, is now having to contend with strictures from the sanctum sanctorum: 10 Janpath is not amused. Extravagant iconography, the message has gone out, is absolutely the wrong way to express fealty. Don8217;t put in art what8217;s in your heart, and after two swift punishments we will have to wait a while for another colourful Sonia Gandhi poster. That8217;s sad in a way. There was clearly an evolutionary principle at work. Durga to the Rani of Jhansi, that is, from the sacred to the secular, from religion to rebellion. Who knows what was next, what train of creative thoughts was halted?

Understandably, the Congress president and her advisors don8217;t see it this way. For them the posters were embarrassments that had to be dealt with. But, and one wonders whether this question is ever asked in 10 Janpath strategy meetings, why do so many Congressmen presume that the party leadership is an altar before which genuflection is the natural response? Mrs Gandhi has indicated 8212; on the rare occasions she speaks to the media, she has even said it herself 8212; that she finds certain kinds of demonstrative behaviour upsetting. So why do Congressmen keep taking risks about upsetting their leader? Politicians are nothing if not trained in cost-benefit analysis. Obviously in the

Congress benefits outweigh costs.

Long experience has taught Congressmen that they shouldn8217;t take the leadership wholly seriously when it frowns on dramatic devotion. The party culture incentivises personal loyalties over collegial arrangements. Really, if Mrs Gandhi so wanted, couldn8217;t she have started an internal reform that promotes genuinely free-thinking talent? Couldn8217;t she have disabused senior Congressmen who have little to offer but loyalty? Why is it that a Nehru-Gandhi loyalist was the first criterion for a Congress presidential candidate? When the Congress in Delhi works like this what can one expect from Congressmen in Moradabad and Jabalpur? They watch and they learn. All one can say about senior Congress loyalists in Delhi is that they haven8217;t produced

Sonia Gandhi posters 8212; not yet.