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Journalism of Courage
quot;Her campaigning shall definitely make a difference,quot; P. Chidambaram mused aloud at a press conference. Before the assembled media8217;s raised eyebrows had time to drop, he grinned and continued, quot;in other states.quot; I don8217;t need to spell out the identity of that enigmatic Her8217;, do I? But I must say the Tamilian from Cambridge USA is definitely politer about Sonia Gandhi than the Tamilian from Cambridge UK. At least he isn8217;t describing her decision to campaign for Sitaram Kesri as quot;half-cockedquot;.
Yet Chidambaram is only half-correct. He is right in implicitly saying that Sonia Gandhi has, at best, a certain curiosity value in Tamil Nadu. And any lingering doubts that the Tamil Maanila Congress might have had should have been dismissed for good after Sonia Gandhi launched her campaign at Sriperumbudur. There were, at the Congress8217;s own generous estimate, a mere fifteen thousand in the audience 8211; almost entirely the party faithful at that.
Definitely not Madhya Pradesh, judging by the attitude of Sonia Gandhi8217;s param-bhakt Arjun Singh. In the last election the Thakur from Satna was beaten by both the BJP and the BSP candidates on his own turf. But in 1996 he was in the Congress T, lacking whatever little protection the CongressI hand might have given.
Arjun Singh now has the reunited Congress behind him. He has been assured by Kanshi Ram that the BSP won8217;t put up any candidate against him. Above all, he has convinced his goddess to hit the election trail.
He slinks away to a quot;safe seatquot; in Hoshangabad, that8217;s what he does. That is not a sign of confidence in the Nehru-Gandhi family8217;s vote-catching abilities.
Of course, Madhya Pradesh is a stronghold of the BJP, so there is some excuse when this scion of the Rajputs displays a clean pair of heels. But that isn8217;t true of, say, Kerala 8212; a state where the BJP failed to poll even 10 percent of the votes in 1996.
Yet even in Kerala I find senior Congress leaders, even vocal Nehru-Gandhi loyalists, strangely reluctant to contest seats lost by the narrowest of margins. In 1996, Thrissur provided a cliffhanger of a contest, with the advantage teetering from the Congress to the Left and back again. Ultimately, however, the Congress8217;s veteran campaigner K. Karunakaran lost the fight.
I personally believe that Kerala is a state where Sonia Gandhi genuinely has a chance to make a difference. But that assessment clearly isn8217;t shared by Karunakaran.
Kerala isn8217;t a state that sees massive swings in voting patterns. The margins between the Left and the Congress are generally less than 10 percent. What is more, the ruling CPIM isn8217;t its old disciplined self, with the new boss, Achuthanandan, gunning for the trade unionists in the CITU.
Given all this, Sonia Gandhi could tilt the scales in favour ofher faithful. But 8216;Leader8217; his followers8217; preferred term for Karunakaran is reluctant to test his fortunes in Thrissur again even if the 8216;Supreme Leader8217; is willing to campaign.
What of that other bastion of the Left, West Bengal? To be honest, Sonia Gandhi is no match for the venerable Jyoti Basu. But couldn8217;t she at least do a better job of bringing home the prodigals from the Trinamool Congress?
One or two of the rebels have returned, but not Mamata Bannerjee and Mani Shankar Aiyar.
How about the two largest states in the country? I used to believe the Congress couldn8217;t possibly do worse in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar than in the Rao era. Well, I was wrong.
For the first time in the history of the party, the Congress has conceded the majority of Bihar8217;s 54 seats to its allies. Ally-in-chief Laloo Prasad Yadav reciprocated by advising Sonia Gandhi to stay at home. As for giant Uttar Pradesh, well, I think the BJP8217;s performance in the Legislative Council polls speaks for itself.
I could go on with a state-by-state analysis, but why bother? The point is that every Congress worker insists that the arrival of Sonia Gandhi will make a difference for the better 8211; except in his/her own state.
But let us dig a little deeper: forget the average Congressman, is Sonia Gandhi sure of herself? Why is she shying away from contesting from Amethi? Why is she so reluctant to assume the presidency of the Congress? Why is she refusing to be described as the Congress candidate for Prime Minister?Everything about Sonia Gandhi betrays a 8216;leader8217; utterly unconvinced of her own abilities. She doesn8217;t, to name but one point, dare to address a press conference. Is she, perhaps, scared of facing questions about her stewardship of the various cash-cow trusts she controls?An election is supposed to be a dialogue between the electorate and the would-be rulers. But Sonia Gandhi doesn8217;t seem to accept that. Her idea of campaigning is to orate from fifteen minutes to half an hour from a platform. That isn8217;t a dialogue, dear Congressmen, it is a sermon from the mountain.
By the way, judging by the Sriperumbudur performance, Sonia Gandhi desperately needs to find better speechwriters. A programme beginning and ending with quot;Thou shalt vote for the Congressquot; without explaining why isn8217;t terribly inspiring. Not even if those words are then echoed in Priyanka Vadra8217;s chastest Tamil.
I have never seen a more peculiar campaign conducted by the mighty Congress. The party president is almost entirely absent from its posters and its platforms. Meanwhile, the chief campaigner, the quot;inspirationquot; of the Congress, is hiding from the media. And both coyly refuse to stand for election.
Frankly, Narasimha Rao comes off better by comparison. Amazingly, he is still ready to face his old constituents 8212; if his graceless enemies in the CWC give him the chance. Can any of those megaphone-mouthed Sonia Gandhi bhakts 8212; the Thakur of Satna comes to mind 8212; dare to do so?
Chidambaram is probably correct in that Sonia Gandhi isn8217;t a factor in Tamil Nadu. But if even old friends in the TMC aren8217;t swayed by her, what makes Congressmen assume that ordinary voters shall fall at her feet?
