Reported speech

It appears odd that just as the Congress is busy working out who speaks what for the party and when,it believes it can get away by putting a mile between itself and a general secretarys statement on Hemant Karkare by saying it was a report of a private conversation.

Leave aside the semantics of whats private in a high political functionarys words uttered at a book release function and then again in an interview to this newspaper. That would merely invite the charge that the party was muddling through the storm. What must be of concern is that this refusal to take a stand and thereby do right by Indias people,most of all its Muslims,draws from an ingrained instinct to allude to a communal divide and then reach out to the minorities by offering a healing touch. This pattern asserts itself after major terrorist incidents. Recall a similar two-toned whistle that another Congress leader attempted after 26/11,or the aftermath of the Batla House encounter in New Delhi. The pattern is familiar: someone from the Congress suggests a conspiracy to wrongly implicate some persons in an incident,and the party suddenly becomes coy and equivocal. This kind of strategy to test the political waters is sure to be found out. The Congress,it is too commonly known,is not a party given to an internal argument for arguments sake. Todays Congress is too managed as an organisation for leaders to even think of provoking political storms without at least tacit consent from those who matter.

This is,of course,not fair to this countrys Muslims. It attempts to mainstream a politics of suspicion and with the radicalisation of the minority and majority communities at the extreme fringes,we must know the dangers this carries. It is also patronising. The Congress has not been able to contend with an increasingly sophisticated and aspirational electorate,across caste,region and religion,for whom these issues of identity and resentment dont resonate in the way intended. As the ultimate establishment party,the Congress might be more comfortable with old tricks,but it desperately needs to rethink its repertoire.