The Cow and The Calf Symbol

                                                         The Cow and the Calf Symbol

In an interesting article in the Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta has queered the pitch for UPAII’s return to power in 2014 by listing out its misdeeds and its frequent self goals when pushed to a corner. But the most important reason he offers is that there is no single leader in the Congress and its allied parties comparable to Modi, Raman Singh, Chauhan, Nitish Kumar etc. This is a major problem despite the fact that the central cabinet boasts of many competent and well educated ministers with a modern outlook belonging both to the older and younger generations. But their new India vision has been stymied by political compulsions of running a coalition government and their inability to assert themselves before both their own party men and their allies who are wantonly still in the pre-liberalization era with no knowledge of the aspirations of a rising young post-liberalization generation.  Then there are the scams from CWG to 2G through Adarsh and land allotments- not to speak of Tatra deal and illegal mining of iron ore and coal that have brought Congress into disrepute though its direct involvement is limited to two of its ex chief Ministers of Mumbai in the Adarsh scam.  With the media jumping the gun to studio-marshal the ministers and the ruling party, and the opposition increasing its decibel to louder and louder orchestration of its one-point agenda -to dispose all reforms that the ruling government proposes such as GST, FDI, RPF, NCTC, etc or even an innocuous setting of a deadline to switchover to digital TV, the government is gripped with policy paralysis as neither any minister nor bureaucrat is ready to take responsibility for any action that may trigger a  real or imaginary scam.

But can the Congress repeat the 2009 miracle when no one after 26/9 had given it even a slender chance? It was not any great performance that catapulted the Congress to power, but the shrill and abusive orchestration of the BJP –not so much against the terrorists as against the Congress and BJP’s volte face in joining the left’s opposition to nuclear deal swung the polls in its favour. The suavity of Man Mohan Singh, the reticence of Sonia Gandhi against the barrage of attacks by the Sangh parivar, the UPA government’s strong and mature diplomatic approach to 26/9 terrorist attack without resorting to jingoism, paranoia and hysteria gave the government some degree of credibility and  acceptance in 2009.  Today that goodwill has dissipated and the Congress is the whipping boy for the Media who have piggybacked on Anna and his trusted lieutenants-Kejrewal and Kiran -to put on a holier than thou attitude to rile the government. If one looks at the issue of corruption dispassionately, it is clear that corruption is endemic to nations that are emerging economies and have felt the impact of globalization resulting in greater inequality between and within the nations. This is not to justify corruption, but to recognize that it has seeped into the nations’ bloodstream though the ruling party alone is regarded as the only offender. It has to be combated at different levels but team Anna’s strident talk about a Lokpal as the magic wand to dispel corruption is superficially artful, lacking intellectual understanding. The truth is Anna’s attack has mainly targetted the Congress while it has turned a Nelson’s eye to its own members’ questionable acts of commission and omission and those of the opposition. 

If this UPAII survives its full term till mid-2014, Congress has at least a year and a half to showcase itself that it is not half as bad as had been made out. It has to its credit framed many new policies specially in the social sector like the food security and health schemes with RTI being the piece de resistance. Even the performance index of Indian economy amidst world recession has not been too bad(except for the last one year of scams).  But despite a few good spokespersons who are good at English articulation, the Congress lacks good articulators in Hindi and regional languages to connect with the masses. The present Cabinet has many honest and intelligent Ministers to head important Ministries like Finance, Home, Education, Law, Environment, Science & Technology, Rural Development etc besides a lot of young dynamic persons at the next level. But the most unfortunate truth is the inability of the Congress to shake off its umbilical cord with the Gandhi family. Why is it that it has accepted Rahul as the heir apparent to the PM’s chair?  He is no doubt a sincere and well meaning young man but he has not been even a Minister of State or a deputy Minister nor has he any experience in the secretariat.  The Congress has given him powers to do backseat driving when he has no open vision of a front seat driver.  He has no doubt worked hard to get grassroots experience but has no understanding of power structures that govern the politics and economy of a nation. He is young and is yet to be fully educated in the intricacies of governance before he can be reckoned as the voice and force of the new generation. There are many young ministers who have greater experience and greater political understanding than Rahul. The pity is none of the younger lot is heard or seen. Occasionally when we see them on the TV, they sound intelligent, articulate, suave and logical. The Congress has to break free of the Banyan tree image that does not nurture growth of any sapling under it. Let Rahul join the cabinet, take part in Parliamentary dialogues, understand the working of Government machinery and the opposition strategy and formulate policies that are broadly acceptable and reformist in character. He should not be seen as a Don Quixote tilting at the windmills, but a real Knight in Shining armour to lead the country to a glorious future. The Congress needs a wise statesman well schooled in realpolitik- that is distinct from ideological politics.  He has to stand firm and not dictated by a fixed set of rules but remain goal-oriented, limited only by practical exigencies.  India is no longer the India of Nehru or Indira.  It has greater aspirations today to be a part of a welfare state that offers equality of opportunity and equal share in the State’s welfare services such as education, healthcare, childcare, housing and employment. Without talking about Utopian schemes or mouthing inane platitudes on ‘gharibi hatao’ lines, the country needs a new dynamic leadership that is both realistic and pragmatic.  The Congress’ dismal state today is not because its ministers are corrupt, but its failure to adhere to ethical principles and its compromise on basic tenets of ethics and good governance for political survival under compulsions of coalition dharma. Its Achilles’ heel is its lack of firmness in standing up to what it feels right (such as  Rajamaking merry with allocation of telecom licenses) - and pushing forward the reforms it had initiated in the 1990s. Man Mohan Singh cabinet that had often been castigated as ‘intellectually arrogant’ has paradoxically failed to uphold intellectual and artistic freedom and forcefully rein in the lumpen forces let loose on the streets by political opponents to curb it. It has shown itself to be pathetically supine, spineless and foolish on many occasions. The world salutes only the strong and the brave, it has no time for the weak and the cowardly. Had the government stopped the Machiavellian tactics of Raja, or reined in Kalmadi or allowed RamDev and Anna Hazare their right to speak as the nation’s Oracle or assured M.F.Hussein of protection if he wanted to return or refused to see the ghost of Satan in Rushdie’s visit to  the Literary festival or protected the Ramanujan essay and Laine’s book on Chatrapathi Shivaji – to list a few- , the Cabinet comprising liberal, modern and progressive ministers would have shown its strength of resolve to free India from shackles of bigotry and antediluvian attitudes. In recent times, it is seen to be caving into the blackmailing demands of Mamata without the strength to push through major reforms to bolster the nations’s GDP growth. It is comical to hear Modi, Patnaik and Jayalalitha arraigning the Centre as ‘overbearing’ when it has shown itself to be abjectly weak- kneed.

It is time for the Congress to rise up morally and intellectually  if it wants to be counted as a liberal force.  The younger generation wants a strong and upright leader with ideals and management skills to translate his ideals into reality. The Congress has to search for a new dynamic leader and this cannot be done if it continues to put all eggs in one basket of sycophancy and holds on to the apron strings of the mother and son.

Can Congress reinvent itself and like the phoenix rise from the ashes? It is possible if only it has the courage to give up sheltering behind its cow and calf symbol.