Dead Man Walking — Sonia-seeking Congress is a pathological sight

Necrophiliac piety is the affliction of the season, exemplified not by Che Guevara’s daughter alone. Delhi is currently witnessing the pathetic spectacle of ancient members of a party of tired metabolism seeking life-saving energy from the dead. It is like this: Leaderless leaders of the Congress, their anxiety hastened by the fear of redundancy if not immediate extinction, are waiting outside the Temple of Boon, known also as 10, Janpath. And there dwells a Goddess whose divinity is directly proportional to the desperation of the devotees. Her smile is not as enigmatic as Mona Lisa’s; but it is nevertheless an endless delight for the interpreting devotee. Sonia Gandhi: the unifier of grief; an idea of dynasty; the first lady of a dead legacy; or, as these columns said earlier, the extra-constitutional Mother India. In the Congress, her absence is the most overwhelming presence. For the castaways of Indian politics, this absence cannot remain so for long. She has to come forward, as Signora in the vanguard, as Our Lady of Salvation. For, only the dead can save the Congress; and Sonia Gandhi’s widowhood is your average Congress leader’s last hope of a second life.

It says something about the current captains of a party the history of which runs parallel to the evolution of Independent India. True, the Dynasty never allowed leaders to get out of the shadow of the Leader. During the Indira Gandhi era, this apparent disadvantage had become wilful subordination, which slowly degenerated into miserable sycophancy. That was an ideal situation for the lesser leaders of the party of power as well as pan-Indian might. The magical name of `Gandhi’ was more than a preservative for power. It also allowed some kind of laziness on the part of the follower: someone was campaigning for you, winning the election for you, and ensuring your political safety. Two assassinations later, the party came out in the open, without a Leader looming over its destiny. The post-Dynasty Congress sought spectral assistance, and it worked for a while. The party soon began to succumb to the accumulated dirt and rust. Almost like Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, the Congress unravelled itself as a firm of malcontents. No slogan, no Leader, no idea, but lots of khadi-clad holograms aspiring for the eternity of power the self-repudiation of the Congress is the biggest morality tale of the last fifty years.

Today the intimations of mortality are evoking a predictable response from the Congressmen. For Narasimha Rao, survival meant passive resistance. For Sitaram Kesri, every step of rejuvenation has turned out to be a suicidal leap. As politics gets increasingly Italianised (multitudinous parties and frequent elections), it is not the jail that beckons the Congressman next door. He is being pushed towards a political wasteland. `Soniaji’ is his last, desperate cry. The Jain Commission report is his newly discovered scripture of revelations. And every leader kneeling outside the Temple of Boon is a living example of a brain-dead party. It is also a sad declaration of his own irrelevance in a polity which is getting Congressified without any effort from the Congress. It will take lots of khadi to cover the revealing shame of the devotees outside 10, Janpath.