The Nation: Congress; In Reverse Gear

The 'brainstorming' conclave at Pachmarhi, expected to hone future strategy, harks back to the Nehru-Gandhi era and skirts real issues.

The Congress, which often preens and calls itself the "natural party of governance", once ruled states that have snow-capped peaks towering over 25,000 ft. Now the party's rule has shrunk, with Pachmarhi, a small hill station in Madhya Pradesh's Satpura range only 4,250 ft above sea level, being the best commanding height at its disposal. Undeterred by the loss of height, literally, the party concluded its "Narora type" brainstorming session behind closed doors at Pachmarhi last weekend to chalk out its strategic road map.

Pachmarhi Pundits

Manmohan Singh: The policy draft that he authored was full of quirky suggestions and short on political insights.

Balram Jakhar: Limited himself to cautioning that the agriculture sector should not be taxed heavily.

Natwar Singh: Failed to shed light on whether Pokhran-II was aviodable and if India should sign the CTBT.

The conclave at Narora in Uttar Pradesh was held in 1974 against the backdrop of a near rebellion by a ginger group against Indira Gandhi's governance. The exigency has changed over the decades, with Congress President Sonia Gandhi too far removed from power to be targeted by disgruntled insiders. But, going by the wobbly existence of the ruling BJP-led coalition, no bookmaker will rule out a sudden reversal of roles between the BJP and the Congress. If that happens, the party may suddenly find itself cast in a heroic role but without the lines written or the props in place. Hence the assembly of about 250 Congressmen at the quiet hill station. As Nawal Kishore Sharma, an active participant at the Narora conclave and convener of the Pachmarhi session, explains, "We needed this break to clear our future focus."

That's the short-cut for devising a winning slogan, just in case India is compelled to go to the hustings next year. The conclave was also an exercise in scouting for new leaders. On both these counts, the session started on a wrong note, with the background papers failing to address the concrete issues, and the list of invitees hardly inspiring confidence. It included, for example, electorally ousted Congressmen and those involved in criminal cases. The search for the ideologue-type ended with K. Natwar Singh, an ex-diplomat, and Mani Shankar Aiyar, yet another ex-ifs who was a prominent member of Rajiv Gandhi's "durbar". Still more disastrous was the exploration for an election issue. Unclear about most current developments -- the desirability of Pokhran-II, for example -- the Congress' view of the future remained as hazy as that of the valley from the low hill. On the key issue of economic policy, the views expressed by its author Manmohan Singh violently clashed with most partymen who would, given a chance, move back in time to the heyday of socialism when the state decided how many breads the citizen should eat at dinner. The foreign policy document -- authored by Pranab Mukherjee and Natwar Singh -- is loaded with vacuities on Panchsheel and non-alignment but is mum on the more mundane question of whether India should sign the CTBT.

There was tight control by 10 Janpath over the Congress tongues prior to the conclave. However, most invitees who spoke off the record struck discordant notes with the official documents. The majority want a fast rewind to the "garibi hatao" days. They look back with nostalgia to the Bangladesh war days, and are not too squeamish about the underground bangs in the Rajasthan deserts. It is arguably difficult for the party to scrounge for rusted slogans in the dustbin of history, but Congressmen certainly feel that neither a free-market philosophy nor a pacifist posture will bring them votes. As an invitee candidly said: "The voters rejected us twice in the recent past because we chased the mirage of reform. The voters want jobs, not job-cuts." Even the political draft paper raised questions like: "Do Congressmen appreciate the need for such (economic) reforms? Are they in a position to identify and appreciate the positive symptoms of payoff from these?"

The economic policy draft by Manmohan Singh is the thickest of the Pachmarhi documents, over 30 pages typed in single space. It is full of quirky suggestions. Examples:

The problem with Manmohan Singh's prescription, much of which dates back to his years in North Block (1991-96), is that it is blinkered on politics. If the Congress returns to power at all during the present Lok Sabha, it has to piggyride on an assortment of left-of-the-centre parties, not to speak of the CPI(M) and its Left Front allies. The Marxist terms for support to a Congress Government were recently set by two CPI(M) stalwarts: General Secretary H.S. Surjeet and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. While Basu has been lambasting the post-1991 reform in his public meetings, Surjeet has set the boundary line at the United Front government's 1996 Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The Pachmarhi draft talks of targets way beyond the CMP, such as bringing about an "exit policy", reducing government stake in nationalised banks to 33 per cent and slashing subsidies to the undeserved all around. Besides, it talks of constitutional reforms for bypassing the authority of the state governments, but that is where the Congress' potential allies are entrenched. If the party presses ahead with this agenda, it is unlikely to make any headway unless a new lower House is formed with the Congress members filling a much larger number of seats.

The hesitation of the party leadership in addressing real issues, like the terms for leading an anti-BJP alliance to power, is evident in the background paper on "the political scene and the Indian National Congress", reportedly the product of a joint venture between Congress Working Committee member Arjun Singh and Aiyar. It is a curious blend of bluster and confession. While praising the wisdom of the party's past leaders it suddenly breaks into patches of awkward plainspeaking. Like showing a "precarious dependence on charismatic leaders"; the "party machinery" failing to "retain its mass appeal"; or the Congress being unable to anchor itself firmly in any caste, community or ideological group. On the moot issue of the price it can pay, in terms of ideology and organisation, to ride back to power, there is not a word.

This silence is surprising, for the party is not really sitting idly waiting for power to fall in its lap. Its emissaries are in constant dialogue with the possible alliance partners -- Laloo Prasad Yadav of the RJD, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the SP, the Left parties, the casteist BSP, and the AIADMK family led by J. Jayalalitha. "We cannot discuss the fine print of future negotiations in a room packed with 50 people," said Congress spokesman Ajit Jogi when questioned about his party's reluctance to touch upon the live issues.

The Pachmarhi conclave was perhaps intended to test the members' preparedness for future events. But such exercise calls for a level of openness which was lacking. The background papers were leaked to the media even though only 14 copies were distributed from the AICC office to CWC members. Besides, the discussions at the conclave were held by five groups completely separated from each other. Therefore, the scrutiny of policy was, at best, sectoral. Some of the background papers, notably the draft on party organisation prepared by AICC General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, were so technical that they only deflected discussion into side issues. The draft on foreign policy wrestled, through the pens of Mukherjee and Natwar Singh, with the virtues of non-alignment. The party's thinking on agriculture, sown by Jakhar, was limited to a general caution against taxing the farm sector.

These are the obviously diversionary tactics of a leadership that may soon drift into power or may be called upon to face another election, but has no clear view of how it should rule or even face the electorate. At Narora, Indira Gandhi tested the waters to see if she could break in the dissidents, like Chandra Shekhar and H.N. Bahuguna, and lead the party to a snap poll in 1975. She failed, calling the Emergency instead and putting her opponents behind bars. The Congress under Sonia too has gone through the mere motions of a collective thinking exercise. It has neither hit upon a clinching issue nor has it found a team of efficient party managers.

The success of a "brainstorming" conclave lies in its participants' dynamic links with the society. The society is constituted by the diverse interest groups that are at work. However, the Congress became a "closed circuit" party -- in the words of the political draft -- a long time back. With its linkages to the society snapped, the party could neither find issues nor get the people to reposition itself on the political map. The Congress after Pachmarhi remains what it has indeed become after being voted out of power in 1996: a private army looking for a charismatic general. The partymen will serve Sonia but she must tell them whom to charge against, when, and why. In 1971, her mother-in-law knew all the answers by instinct. Now the daughter-in-law can give her own instinct a try.