Wanted a benign coterie

Call it the inner circle, the kitchen cabinet, the favoured few or the coterie, every ruler has to have a set of people he can consult and...

Call it the inner circle, the kitchen cabinet, the favoured few or the coterie, every ruler has to have a set of people he can consult and rely on.

The top is a lonely place. It is this loneliness that a coterie takes advantage of, first heightening the leader’s insecurity by playing on his fears and then setting about finding a solution to them, in the process making themselves indispensable. They also tend to look only at the leader’s interests, handing him or her only survival tips, instead of a plan for the party or the nation.

Leaders tend to find fault with a coterie only when they are no longer part of it. That is why Jitendra Prasada’s coterie versus Congress worker’ argument does not carry weight. After all, he was a member of the coteries of Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri.

Yet, the issue agitates Congress workers. They tell you that access to Sonia Gandhi is controlled; those with one kind of a view are sent in to give her feedback when a decision is due; many Congress leaders are wary of giving anything in writing for fear that it would reach the coterie.

No coterie should be allowed to bypass the institutionalised set-up but Sonia’s advisors have emerged more powerful than the party office-bearers and their advice has not done much for the Congress or for her.

Look at the major decisions taken during the last two years. Sonia had thundered that Rabri Devi had lost the right to rule after the atrocities against the Dalits in February 1999. That was her gut reaction but within days, she was persuaded to oppose the imposition of Central rule in Bihar, bailing out the same Rabri Devi. Had the NDA formed a government then, the Congress would have been occupying the opposition space today, instead of losing out to the RJD as its junior partner in the government.

Can the Congress dream of coming to power without winning back UP and Bihar? There was clarity about this at the brainstorming session in Pachmarhi when the party was inclined to go it alone and rebuild the organisation. It also suited Sonia, for as a newcomer, she needed the time to learn the ropes.

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Then there was the whole business of pulling down the Vajpayee government. To begin with, Sonia was disinclined to disturb the Vajpayee ministry, even after the onion wave which installed Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. It was the coterie which sold her the line, and she bought it, that the Congress could form the government at the Centre. What followed was one disaster after another — Jayalalitha’s tea party, Sonia’s claim in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan of the support of "272" members.

Her senior and seasoned advisors should have anticipated the kind of problems she would run into. Forget the "foreigner" angle, which does bother the middle class. How could Mulayam Singh Yadav agree to a government under her leadership, which would have meant allowing a chunk of his following to shift to the Congress in UP?

That was no ordinary mistake. It transformed her from a reluctant player into a power-grasping "foreigner". In the process, she lost her biggest asset till then. India loves renunciation and for seven long years she had steadfastly refused to come into politics after her husband’s assassination, taking the leap only when the Congress seemed to be on the verge of a collapse. She stopped the erosion from its ranks, and for all her shortcomings, she continues to keep the party united.

The coterie plays on her sense of diffidence, underscoring her newness in politics, her non-familiarity with the Congress and the complexity of India’s socio-political relationships, and on her fear of making mistakes. They tell her that there is a Sharad Pawar or a Digvijay Singh ready to dethrone her when, in fact, she should encourage the state leaders to come into their own if the Congress is to be rejuvenated.

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They urge her to behave like Indira Gandhi, when the Congress is a pale shadow of what it was and it is a very different India in 2000 to the one that existed 30 years ago. They dissuade her from following her own instincts, when as a newcomer she could have brought a freshness to the way politics is practiced. While she takes one step forward, like the constitution of a central election authority to make the party polls more transparent, she takes two steps backward with decisions like postponing PCC elections.

Growing unhappiness with the BJP’s performance is going in favour of the Congress in places where it is pitted against the saffron party as in Gujarat or Leh. But the party will have to work hard in states where there are other major players and this makes up half the country.

All set to be re-elected Congress president, Sonia now needs a new coterie, which has ready access to her, is accountable but does not alienate others in the party.

Can the Congress dream of coming to power without winning back UP and Bihar?