Culture war

The Congress appears to be drawing itself deeper into panic over the Sethusamundram project. On Monday R.K. Dhawan, member of the Congress Working Committee and an old Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist, revived Union minister Jairam Ramesh8217;s salvo against Culture Minister Ambika Soni. Dhawan too advocated Soni8217;s resignation on moral grounds. Amidst all this Soni has been affirming readiness to put in her papers if demanded by the prime minister or the Congress president. For a party that was quick to see the possible repercussions of the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on the Ramayana8217;s historicity, this drawn-out blame game is incredibly lazy politics. It is also irresponsible, because it thereby intertwines national debate on faith versus state with intra-party squabbles. The Congress needs to turn the page on the faux pas over the affidavit, and longer it delays this, the greater will be the political capital expended on closure.

Whether the Congress likes it or not, by the statements advocating Soni8217;s resignation on moral grounds and those like Digvijay Singh and Salman Khurshid8217;s countering them, the issue of ministerial responsibility in a cabinet system has been highlighted. Is it to be individual responsibility for oversight on a department8217;s mis-step, or should it be collective responsibility? Why the Congress has allowed matters to drift towards this question is difficult to comprehend. Especially after its government at the Centre moved so fast to contain the political 8212; and possibly, pre-election 8212; damage of the original affidavit. There is a feeling that this extended blame game is a manifestation of a power struggle within the Congress.

If so, left to it gathering momentum, this blame game could shift the debate to a very difficult terrain for the Congress. Already, its government has had to overcompensate for the original affidavit by putting the entire Sethusamundram project up for re-examination. Anything that holds focus on the ASI affidavit by its leaders would keep the opposition BJP8217;s cadres very much interested. The Congress, given the record of the late 8217;80s, is not very skilled in handling emotive issues of faith and religion. For its own and the country8217;s sake, the party should desist from heading down that road again.