NCPs eleven

The Nationalist Congress Party was born 11 years ago in the most dramatic and unexpected circumstances. Founded by a trio of Congress leaders one from Maharashtra,another from Bihar and the third from Meghalaya its assumption of the word nationalist hinted at both their revolt against Sonia Gandhi and plans for a pan-Indian presence. But as advertisements marking the partys anniversary this week showed,that ambition is already shrunk. The NCP still has legislative presence in diverse parts of the country,but as announced in the tagline in the advertisements,Maharashtras pride,nations prestige,it draws its clout primarily as a regional party. And even from that springboard a significant one,with the NCP in a third consecutive coalition government with the Congress in the state,and a second at the Centre the party appears lost in giving shape to its second decade.

There was promise visible,a decade ago,in what was an opportunistic project to build a new party. By becoming a fourth pole in Maharashtras politics,the NCP offered a regional counterpoint to the Shiv Senas xenophobia that would not be possible for the national parties. In competing for a place in the state,the NCP did well to show that regional identity and therefore political clout was to be had beyond the Senas Mumbai-for-Mumbaikars campaign. Yet,in offering a less anxious,less confrontational political platform,the party never quite managed or even tried to dip into the states cosmopolitanism. The campaign against bar girls made that evident. It did not either,to its discredit as a party populated with modernisers,move aggressively on an agenda to reform the states economy or upgrade its infrastructure. And now as the NCP and Sena find their political space reduced,as their reduced clout finds voice in Sharad Pawar and Bal Thackerays occasional gestures of support to the other,the NCP is struggling to assert an identity to withstand the Congresss sporadic calls for a merger into the mother party.

The need for a vision has become all the more important when the NCP leadership is caught in controversy and succession plans. With Pawar especially weakened by the IPL experience,this will be a crucial year for the party. It must rue the lost chances of the past.