Opinion The Congress’s centre folds

The Manmohan Singh government has a host of ministers like Maken who seem to believe that they have been made to wear the wrong hats. Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja,for instance,would rather wear Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s shoes. She sniffed a chance recently when Rahul Gandhi made an unscheduled visit to Mirchpur village where two Dalits were burnt alive and Congress President Sonia Gandhi shot off an angry letter to the CM.

While Selja rushed out to knock on the doors of everybody who mattered in the Congress,Hooda swung into a damage control exercise,telling superintendents of police that he would hold them individually responsible if any such incident happened again. Though the CM was not forthcoming on the issue of same-gotra marriage,he was at pains to explain that he would not tolerate illegal diktats like honour killing by khap panchayats. Finally,the Congress president gave him a patient hearing on Wednesday evening putting all speculation about his fate to rest.

Hooda had led his party to a second consecutive win in the assembly elections,beating anti-incumbency — the first time since 1972. But Selja’s hopes hinge on her Dalit identity,even though she is yet to emerge as the undisputed leader of the community. The BSP candidate won 1.88 lakh votes (21.8 per cent of the vote) in her Ambala constituency in the last Lok Sabha election. In the assembly election,while the Congress was wiped out from another Hooda detractor Choudhury Birendra Singh’s stronghold of Jind,the party also suffered a setback in Selja’s stronghold. The BSP won its lone assembly constituency in the state,Yamuna Nagar,in her backyard. Similarly,Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad spends most of his time undercutting state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz in Jammu and Kashmir. As for his interest in the ministry,a crucial one in the ruling party’s scheme of things,two pictures at the entrance of the office of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) in Delhi said it all. The pictures were those of the prime minister and former Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss. The former J&K CM had not found time to visit the NACO office in the capital in the 11 months he had been in office.

Like Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee,Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan also likes to keep away from the national capital. He is lobbying hard for the reins of the Tamil Nadu Congress. So much does he remain immersed in state politics that Rahul Gandhi had to send him a stern message recently,warning him against interfering in the Indian Youth Congress election in Tamil Nadu.

As for Maken,he cannot stop thinking about the CM’s chair. Projecting himself as a champion of the upper castes by opposing a caste census helps him politically in the state which has been the crucible of anti-reservation stirs. He would not mind being dropped in rank,if not elevated. He had enjoyed more access to the high command as AICC in charge of Jharkhand and Orissa,and wielded more influence.

Ministers like him are not worried about losing their job. They know the party will find it more problematic to give them a new job,what with all those complex considerations about balancing region,religion and caste. Most of these ministers also wear loyalty tags on their sleeves.

Much has been speculated about the possible reasons for the foot-in-the-mouth syndrome of ministers and senior Congress leaders. Some blame it on the obduracy and free spirit of certain falcons; and some on the constraints on the manoeuvrability of the falconer. Some others believe that these dissenters represent an alternative strand of thinking within the party meant to usurp the opposition’s space. The most argued,though the least believed,is the usual official Congress line about vibrancy of the democratic culture in the party. Some leaders,like Digvijay Singh,Mani Shankar Aiyar and Jairam Ramesh are believed to be positioning themselves for the future,though often to the embarrassment of the party and the government.

The errant leaders and ministers have multiple reasons and incentives to cross the line drawn by the party and the government. Only a strong,decisive intervention by the prime minister and the Congress president would remove doubts about falcons not hearing the falconer.

dk.singh@expressindia.com