Mysore MP and Congress leader A.H. Vishwanath's public support to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani's proposed rath yatra against corruption has left the Congress red-faced: it is not buying Mr. Vishwanath's clarification that he will support any move against corruption.
A senior party functionary told The Hindu that the only possible explanation for Mr. Vishwanath making such a statement was that he intended to leave the party for the BJP. The Congress, he said, saw Mr. Advani's rath yatra as a sham, only planned to project the former Deputy Prime Minister as a Prime Ministerial candidate again. For the BJP to say it was fighting corruption, when it had not publicly condemned B.S. Yeddyurappa, the former Karnataka Chief Minister who recently had to step down on graft charges, was ludicrous.
Mr. Advani, in fact, the Congress said, had supported Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's attempt to dislodge the State Lokayukta.
But party sources admitted that the public disenchantment with the Congress on the issue of corruption had unnerved party workers. A party MP representing a metropolitan seat said he had found many of his party workers sporting Anna Hazare caps while a key party functionary said that on a recent visit to Bhopal, party workers advised him not to criticise Mr. Hazare.
Indeed, last month, Bareilly MP Praveen Singh Aron wrote a letter to party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, expressing his suspicions about the mishandling of the Anna Hazare movement by the party's crisis managers, even as East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit publicly criticised the way the party had handled the crisis, especially the arrest of Mr. Hazare. In Mumbai, two Congress MPs — Sanjay Nirupam and Priya Dutt — came out openly in support of Mr. Hazare.
On Saturday, Mr. Aaron and Mr. Nirupam – to whom The Hindu spoke – were vigorous in their criticism of Mr. Vishwanath supporting Mr. Advani's rath yatra, while acknowledging that the corruption issue had hit the Congress, and needed to be dealt with seriously. However, both were clear that it was politically foolish to attack Mr. Hazare, something which some of their colleagues have done publicly, such as party spokesperson Manish Tewari.
“The people may not be happy with Mr. Hazare's team, but not him,” said Mr Aaron. Mr. Nirupam felt that political motives should not be attributed to Mr. Hazare – he was of the view that once the movement took off, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh utilised the popular discontent that had been channelled.
Clearly, for party MPs who have to deal with public disillusionment with the Congress at the cutting edge of their constituencies, there has to be a delicate balancing act to be done: they must support public sentiment while defending their party.
A senior party functionary told The Hindu : “There can be no compromise or surrender to these forces. They must be exposed – the RSS is behind this movement and the people must be told so.” But he agreed that simultaneously, the party would have to convince people that it was serious about fighting corruption.
