Opinion - Editorials   

Mixed vibes from Hyderabad

There has long been a born-to-rule air about the Congress, India's first party by virtue of its rich past and its early dominance of post-Independence power politics. Such was its hauteur that for decades the party refused to acknowledge the advent of the coalition era, preferring political isolation in the Opposition to the prospect of sharing power with potential allies. The first sign that a transformation was in the offing came with Sonia Gandhi's coalition-building efforts. If her success in that unlikely endeavour came as a surprise, the party's uncharacteristic humility in the aftermath of its May 2004 Lok Sabha victory was a thunderbolt. The Congress, its spokesperson stressed, owed its triumph to its allies. But now the trademark imperiousness is back. At the All-India Congress Committee's plenary session in Hyderabad, the party laid into its coalition partners, cautioning them against "crossing the limits of constructive criticism" in pursuit of "their own individual party lines." It evidently saw no irony in announcing, in the same breath, that it would "aggressively confront and fight the Left parties" in their political strongholds of West Bengal, Kerala, and Tripura. This was not the only inconsistency. The mandatory lip service to the aam admi over, the economic resolution recorded the party's determination to push ahead with reforms, imparting a "new direction and ... new momentum to the economy." The Congress' call for wholesale attitudinal transformation failed to carry conviction in an atmosphere surcharged with high emotion for the Nehru-Gandhi clan. "The change should come in the way we look, the way we think, the way we feel, the way we behave," exhorted a party resolution. The brave words were drowned in exaggerated praise lavished on Sonia Gandhi, which was a prelude to a raucous demand for the induction of Rahul Gandhi.

That it was left to the Congress president and her son to inject sense into this tamasha is a further irony. Ms. Gandhi gamely appealed to the gathering to refrain from glorifying her. She called for lifestyle changes that better reflected the party's social equity agenda — "I feel like our concern for the poor is a joke." She acknowledged that it was a long haul for the Congress in North India, indeed that there was no "magic wand" to revive party fortunes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. There was more to come for a flock dreaming of a swift return to the glory days: "A party that is complacent, underestimates its opponents, and exaggerates its own strength will be humbled by the people." Barely had the delegates recovered from the sternness of their president's message than Rahul administered a further reality check. Young Congresspersons, he noted, were foot soldiers whose duty lay not in hankering for posts and power but in working on the ground. He himself was "still a learner" whose place was among Congress workers, who was aware that his party's failure in its erstwhile strongholds was because "we have stopped agitating for the cause of the people." Will members of a once-great party reflect over the mismatch between their own conduct and the words of those they claim to worship?

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Mixed vibes from Hyderabad
Nepal King shows true colours
India, China and the Asian axis of oil
Brazil's roofless reclaim the cities
Welcome step
Standoff
Karnataka politics
"The bird on the book does mean something"

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu