Ministers who want to go to party must know govt props up Congress,not other way round
Written by The Indian Express
2 min read
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Ministers who want to go to party must know govt props up Congress,not other way round
In apparent recognition of the Congresss battered image,several senior ministers have reportedly offered up their jobs and asked to be allowed to concentrate on party work. No ones saying this on the record,but off it you hear a buzz about change. It may be farcical homage to the Kamaraj Plan,that grand cleaning of the slate to allow fresh thinking and new people in the 1960s but what could the exit of a few mid-level ministers realistically do for the party? If anything,the idea that Salman Khurshid,who may have been among those who wrecked what little chance the Congress had in Uttar Pradesh,is now contemplating full-time service to the cause,should send jitters through the party leadership.
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Whats more,all this Kamaraj Plan chatter misses a truth visible to everyone else: it is the government that needs all the help it can get right now,and the UPAs successes and failures flow directly to the Congress. No amount of party rejigging will help the Congress when 2014 rolls around,unless it fixes the inadequacies of its government. After all,most recent stumbles in the Congresss fortunes,right up to the municipal election in Delhi,are squarely attributable to the UPAs record just as its 2009 victory had everything to do with the governments promise. The idea that the Congresss interests may not be the same as the UPAs is a peculiar alibi it has been floated several times by Congress leaders to deflect responsibility for difficult government decisions,to have it both ways by signalling an ideological split between the Congress leadership and the government.
The party needs to convey a decisive change. But that means acknowledging its stakes in the governments performance. The UPA needs to get pending legislation passed,it needs to persuade others of its policy wisdom,and it needs to convey greater authority. The party faithful should,at least for their own sake,exert themselves more in the executive.
