Don8217;t rock the boat

The message coming across from Congress party headquarters is: plug the holes, don8217;t rock the boat. That is a useful exercise even though it is a far cry from the drastic measures expected after a special session of the AICCI authorised the party president to overhaul the organisation at all levels. The need of the hour, as Sonia Gandhi appears to have recognised in her handling of the CWC revamp and the Digvijay Singh affair, is to unite the Congress around a broad-based, collective leadership. The old guard is still around in the CWC but powers have been effectively pruned in certain quarters and new responsibilities given to some. It will not have escaped notice that Arjun Singh has been brought down a peg or two, many of Sitaram Kesri8217;s key appointees, including Tariq Anwar, have been retained and the friends of 10, Janpath have both advanced and suffered setbacks. Although Narasimha Rao has been brought out of no-man8217;s land in other ways, it is probably premature to give him any kind of official statuswithin the organisation just now.

The Madhya Pradesh row has been handled with considerable finesse. It is sensible not to make major changes six months from the Assembly elections especially since Digvijay Singh can justifiably say that the blame for the Lok Sabha debacle should be widely shared by state and central leaders. At the same time that he has been put on notice to deliver or else, numerous state chieftains, Arjun Singh, S.C. Shukla, Madhav Rao Scindia et al, now have reason to understand that there is limited scope upstairs for those who do not put their weight behind the party in their own states. It definitely helps the process of uniting the party when the president does not allow herself to be swayed by intriguers but examines the merits of a case impartially. Sonia Gandhi is not entirely successful in this respect as her belated public recognition of Sharad Pawar8217;s contribution to the recovery in Maharashtra shows. But at least she seems to try to be even-handed. And, marshalling the troopsto express solidarity with the ex-party president in his legal battle with the RSS ought to go down well.

The Congress is and must be preoccupied with problems at home. But that is no excuse for its lack of clear responses to the plans and actions of the central government or other developments in the country many of which call for more than the little murmurs of protest heard from Congress spokespersons. It is one thing to recognise, appropriately, that the Congress is in no position as yet to offer an alternative at the Centre. It is quite another to ignore its responsibilities as the main Opposition party. 8220;Constructive criticism8221; is beginning to sound like passivity while the party chief picks her way gingerly through the thickets of politics.

Time is not a luxury the Congress can afford. Apart from major policy and structural changes being brought about by the BJP-led coalition in the Centre, there is the political crisis coming to a head in UP and Assembly by-elections all over the country. TheCongress has to make up its mind where it stands in the new situation today.