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THE
NATION: CONGRESS
Changing
Orbits
The new
CWC does not reflect Sonia's strengths, only her compulsions to keep everyone
happy
By Lakshmi
Iyer
On February
12, when Congress President Sonia Gandhi unveiled her brand new Congress
Working Committee (CWC), partymen did not toast those who had been included.
They had good reasons to be indifferent. For there were no surprises in
the eclectic panel.
Barring
dapper former Union minister Kamal Nath, a 40-something Mukul Wasnik or
an out-of-the-woodwork Lalitendu Prasad Shahi and Mahavir Prasad, most
of the members were the regulars-Manmohan Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, Ambika
Soni, Arjun Singh, N.D. Tiwari and Mohsina Kidwai. Of course, Pranab Mukherjee
and R.K. Dhawan, who were destined to be axed, were unexpectedly retained.
They saved their berths in the eleventh hour through certain backroom
truces.
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LOYAL
FAMILY
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"I
have been rewarded for my loyalty to the Congress."
Kamal
Nath, former minister
"There's
no rule to bar old leaders. I'm a member of AICC since 1960."
L.P.
Shahi, leader from Bihar
"I
have extensive experience in organisational matters."
Mukul
wasnik,
ex-NSUI chief
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Nevertheless,
what enthused the rank and file were not the inclusions but the three
vacancies in the 24-member apex policy-making body. The vacancies held
out a tantalising possibility for those excluded. "Sonia is just
testing the waters. She wants to see the party's reaction to some of the
appointments," a party leader summed up. Word spread thick and fast
at 24 Akbar Road that the list was not final as neither the CWC nor the
AICC had the mandatory number of women and Scheduled Tribe leaders.
Soon it
became an open season for Congressmen to pick holes. Why should the panels
for SC/STs and OBCs be headed by leaders from Andhra Pradesh, some asked.
They were referring to the appointment of G. Venkataswamy and P. Shivshankar
to these posts. Some felt that the troublemakers had been rewarded. They
cited Tiwari's appointment as head of the editorial board of the Congress
Sandesh, the party magazine, as a case in point. Only two months ago,
Tiwari had embarrassed the party by writing an article in praise of Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the RSS mouthpiece, Panchjanya.
These glaring
discrepancies encouraged everyone to explore the scope for revision. In
sum, the CWC vacancies had a debilitating effect on the 21 CWC and 103
AICC appointments, injecting an air of uncertainty in the party. The jostle
for space in Sonia's dream team began afresh.
For a leader
who had the unenviable task of distributing too few goodies among too
many claimants, Sonia had little choice between keeping a few seats warm
in the CWC and putting a dream team in place. The empty slots would at
least sustain partymen's enthusiasm for some time. However, the vacancies
tell only one side of the story of the reconstitution of the CWC. The
other side veers towards the CWC members she retained, the ones she dropped,
the new ones she picked up, and of course the palace intrigues that influenced
her choices.
By and large,
the new CWC and the AICC do not reflect Sonia's strength but her needs.
"She retained the heavyweights because she could not afford to displease
any one of them," says a party functionary. In retaining much of
the old guard, Sonia has rewarded loyalty. Therefore the new CWC is a
mix of Rajiv's men such as Mani Shankar Aiyar and Vishwajit Singh, and
brother-in-law Sanjay's one-time backroom boys such as Kamal Nath and
Ambika Soni. She has also not been shy of rewarding leaders from the Congress
(Tiwari) stock-five of the 20 members of the CWC belong to this group.
In fact, she went out of the way to resurrect an 80-year-old Shahi to
represent Bihar just because he had been associated with the Tiwari faction.
Other Tiwari associates like M.L. Fotedar and Birender Singh were accommodated
in the Central Election Committee (CEC).
Proximity
to the Tiwari Congress has not been the only criterion at work. Another
crucial factor was Soni, who has virtually emerged as the second most
powerful person in the organisation. She is now a major overseer of party
appointments, overshadowing even Sonia's powerful private secretary Vincent
George. For instance Soni helped Wasnik, a former Union minister and Dalit
leader from Maharashtra, enter the largely geriatric CWC. She created
space for Wasnik by ousting Prabha Rau as well as Sushil Kumar Shinde.
Rau, who also hails from Wasnik's native Vidarbha, was nominated to the
CWC only in December 1999 and was also appointed AICC general secretary.
Soon after, Rau had displeased Soni by refusing to play ball with her
in ousting Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Shinde, who was AICC general
secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, had to go as he was also a Dalit
leader from Maharashtra. He was close to George, who could not save his
job.
According
to party circles, George has not been able to get much for his backers
in the latest organisation. Except for Ghulam Nabi Azad, George has no
AICC general secretary of his choice. He has also not been accompanying
Sonia on tours. On the other hand, it is Soni who vetted all the appointments.
Partymen even see her hand in keeping out high-profile women leaders like
Najma Heptullah, Margaret Alva and Renuka Chowdhury out of the CWC and
in picking obscure ones like septuagenarian Sarojini Pulla Reddy to replace
Vijayabhaskara Reddy in the panel.
The third
factor that has worked in the CWC and AICC appointments is utility to
the party. "Kamal Nath is a resourceful man, an industrialist. He
has been put in charge of two states going to the polls-Assam and West
Bengal-as he will not depend on the party for funds," says a senior
leader. Nath himself discounts that he has been elevated because of his
resources. "I have been in the Congress for 25 years. Never left
it since my days in the Youth Congress. I understand the party and partymen
all over the country." Nath's elevation is viewed as a double whammy
for his long-time rival Madhavrao Scindia who did not find a place even
in the CEC. His acolyte Pratap Bhanu Sharma also lost out in the AICC
shake-out. Nath denies he is pitted against Scindia. "Scindia called
to congratulate me," he says.
Besides
Nath, the other people with high utility value on the CWC are special
invitees Aiyar for his drafting skills and former Union minister Chintamohan
for his proximity to BSP leader Kanshi Ram.
Though the
CWC hasn't got a new look, Sonia has appointed S. Jaipal Reddy as chief
spokesperson to reinvent the party as an aggressive opposition. She chose
to overlook the fact that the one-time Janata Dal leader had honed his
oratory skills by spewing venom on the Congress for over 25 long years.
Leaders of the ruling National Democratic Alliance coalition are said
to be busy poring over parliamentary records to dig out all that Reddy
has said about the Congress and its leaders as a leading light of the
opposition both in the Lok Sabha as well as in the Rajya Sabha. Party
circles feel Reddy's past is likely to haunt the Congress more than it
would trouble him. The worst he may have to contend with will be some
embarrassing moments at the press conferences he addresses as the party's
spokesperson.
Whatever
may have been Sonia's compulsions in reconstituting the CWC and the AICC
the way she did, it has raised a number of questions in the minds of Congressmen.
Most of them wonder whether the CWC, with the same tired old faces dominating
the panel, will be capable of giving the much-needed direction to the
Congress at a time when the 116-year-old party needs it most.
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