Onus of Cong calamity on young turks

Prasada was the first to sound the alarm bell some weeks ago when he said the young turks will be directly responsible if the party situation worsens in the country. That has since happened with Uttar Pradesh leading the way. To be fair to the detractors, none of the youngsters have shown any creativity in dealing with crises.

Anwar, for example, has yet to visit UP, the largest State in the country which holds the key to the Congress’ revival. Even after he was asked to do so, Anwar preferred to stay in Delhi forcing Kesri to seek help elsewhere. The Congress president has now fallen back on old hands like Prasada and Dhawan to help him out. All that Anwar has done is to call Naresh Aggarwal, who lead the UPCC defection to the BJP, a liar and a cheat.

Even in Madhya Pradesh, Anwar has been unable to stem the rebellion led by Aslam Sher Khan and Dilip Singh Bhuria. In UP and MP, two vast and important States, Anwar has made little impact. Ditto with Scindia. In Maharashtra, which is under his charge, Scindia has not countered a possible walkover to the Right.

The only areas of hope are Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland and other small units where the party is largely united and intact. Only in around eight to 10 States is the Congress in a better position. In about 15, the Congress is in a bad shape. This is where the young turks have to rise to the occasion.

Cong not to join UF

Congress president Sitaram Kesri today lambasted the BJP, challenging it to split the party, and ruled out joining the United Front Government. “I challenge Advani to get any Congress MP resign from Lok Sabha,” he said.

Kesri said his comments about joining the UF had been misquoted by the press. “The Congress has not proposed any thing on power sharing, it was media which has reported so,” he said.