Ten long years

If a week is a long time in politics,as were always told,a decade must be aeons indeed. So it was that,in the midst of the hectic political activity of the past couple of weeks,a momentous political anniversary passed unmarked. Ten years ago last fortnight,the Indian National Congress was in crisis. Three members of the Congress Working Committee Sharad Pawar,Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar had raised the banner of revolt against Sonia Gandhi,distressed at the prospect of someone of her descent aspiring to high constitutional office; in response,Sonia Gandhi resigned as Congress president. Then followed days of chaos,with the familiar pleading mobs thronging Akbar Road and Janpath. It all ended finally in high drama as,in a series of meetings disrupted by violence in which former president Sitaram Kesri,among others,was literally manhandled the AICC expelled them,and Sonia Gandhi withdrew her resignation.

Thus was born the Nationalist Congress Party. But not as the rebels originally envisioned it,as a home for those stifled in a party that had returned to an obsession with the Nehru-Gandhis. None of those Pawar and Sangma hoped would go with them eventually did: not Antony,not Pilot,not Sushil Kumar Shinde,not Meira Kumar. Not even Jitendra Prasad or Kesri,two of the most prominent leaders roughed up in front of the media. The NCPs national ambitions were thus dashed. And now,ten years later,Sharad Pawar was sworn in third,after the PM and Pranab Mukherjee,in the second UPA government; at the councils other end,Purno Sangmas daughter is its youngest member.

Unsurprisingly,some in the Congress,such as Prithviraj

Chavan,are asking what the point is of the NCP any more,when Sonia Gandhi isnt the Congress candidate for PM,when Pawar himself states that the NCP doesnt have enough of a footprint for him to aspire to premiership. And on Sunday,Agatha Sangma said that the issues that caused the NCP

split are irrelevant now. The Maharashtra assembly elections are fast approaching: the NCP does indeed have some self-definition to do,and it will be interesting to watch its responses.