Write on, leader

So it is epistolary politics. Sitaram Kesri is writing and writing to remain the leader of a party which is caught between an idea called S...

So it is epistolary politics. Sitaram Kesri is writing and writing to remain the leader of a party which is caught between an idea called Sonia and a reality called mortality. The idea continues to be a private, testosteronic sensation for certain Congressmen who have otherwise been shrinking and shrivelling due to bad weather. But it is an idea that refuses to be a certainty. Sonia remains permanently Delphian. And beyond the whiteness of widowhood, which the Congress hopes to turn into a pan-Indian passion play, lies the scorching reality of a political Sahara. So what are you expected to do when the choice is between the real and the unreal? You can put your faith in the unreal and face the people. Or you can invent a southern bogeyman. Or you can be reasonable and modest 8212; just look at that expanse of irrelevance. Or you can join the government 8212; better to be honest about 8220;to be in power is no sin8221;. Or you can write letters, your eyes, afflicted with the cataract of self-doubt, sadly fixed on 10, Janpath.

The Congress has chosen the last option. And the subtext of the Congress letters is truly autobiographical. For a born-to-rule party, powerlessness evokes desperate responses. The demonisation of the DMK is a desperate Congress bid for some extra oxygen. When the people cease to be your friend, you pull an enemy out of your private fear, an enemy who will make the people friendlier to you. An enemy against whose evil will be pitted the good of the Dynasty. But you are too old, too fragile, too diffident to parade the enemy on your own. That is an admission that the Congress wants power 8212; power alone can keep it alive 8212; but doesn8217;t have the energy or idea to win it. Since Sonia is today at her read-me-if-you-can best, the party, particularly Kesri, cannot either take the great leap forward or retreat. The leader can be leader only by writing letters. Really?

The Congress can still redeem itself if it is willing to step out of the world of spooks and assassins, of widows and deadwoods. If the party accepts that there has to be a post-dynastic Congress with post-dynastic slogans and ideas. If it is honest enough to come to terms with its suspended growth. But the accidental neta seems to be in no state to look at himself. He doesn8217;t realise that another implosion at the Centre will be a negation of all those pretences about secularism and anti-communalism. If the Congress feels that it cannot forever afford to be a restless rearguard, here is the opportunity to join the government. But the Congress wants power through blackmail. It wants power gratis. This political grotesquery is not only an insult to the spectators but a suicidal display of irresponsibility. Irresponsibility because external partnership doesn8217;t mean that you can hold your ruling partner to ransom. Of course, it gives you immense freedom 8212; to write letters, to indulge in spectral fantasies. Maybe it is time for the last letter, meant to be read by the people on the day after the funeral.