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COVER STORY: AICC SESSION
Congress' Coalition
Flight Grounded
With sceptic constituents, Sonia Gandhi's plan to
form an alliance may have backfired
By Lakshmi Iyer
The 81st All-India
Congress Committee plenary session in Bangalore last week was billed as
one which would unveil a New Age Congress. The party was expected to open
itself to expedient alliances and coalitions in the wake of the damning
Tehelka tapes. Congress President Sonia Gandhi exhorted delegates, "We
will fight every battle, wage every war, make every sacrifice." The
political resolution adopted at the session underlined her determination.
"The Congress will play a proactive role in restoring secular governance
in the country," it said. But, neither the speech nor the resolution
stirred delegates.
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POWER DREAM:
Sonia sets the tone
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The 81st plenary session
at Bangalore with all its fanfare failed to provide clear direction.
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Hours after articulating its willingness to share
power with secular parties, the Congress found itself tied in knots. On
the eve of assembly elections in five states, the party realised it could
not be seen collaborating with secular formations, particularly the two
communist parties it would be fighting in West Bengal and Kerala.
The paradigm shift in the Congress' approach
to coalition politics seems ill-starred. First, the CPI(M) pretended to
be lukewarm to the Congress overture. Its General Secretary Harkishan
Singh Surjeet raised doubts about the sincerity of the Congress in ousting
the Government. Other constituents of the newly founded People's Front
(PF) such as the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Revolutionary Socialist
Party (RSP) were equally sceptical. "We are not depending on the
proactive role of the Congress to come to power. It has never been consistent.
I hope it means what it says," says sp leader Amar Singh. Explains
an RSP leader, "The PF has to remain distant from the Congress. Otherwise
the NDA allies such as the Telugu Desam might not feel encouraged to cross
over. Until the Government falls we cannot collaborate with the Congress."
Most of thePFconstituents feel Sonia was making
conciliatory noises to enlist their support for assuming prime ministership.
"She must not entertain such dreams. Anti-Congressism is not dead.
Some of us may not even like to share power with the party. It may have
to support a goverment from outside as it did from 1996-98," says
a PF leader and insists that the Congress would have to make that sacrifice
for secularism.
With such responses to its policy shift, the
Congress was forced to clarify its position. Party spokesman Jaipal Reddy
says, "Our ultimate objective is to come to power on our own. But
then we cannot wish away the present. The coalition era has lasted longer
than we expected it to."
More clarifications followed on the nature of
role the party would play in installing a secular government. The Congress
did not want to be seen as a habitual wrecker of governments. AICC General
Secretary Ambika Soni says, "We are not manipulating a crisis in
the Government, only studying the scenario." These assertions reflect
a division in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on the proactive clause.
Members like Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, Kamal Nath and Soni feel that
committing the party to an active role in bringing the Vajpayee Government
down could be counter-productive as it could earn the wrath of the middle
class. However, the quartet is overruled by Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh
and Ghulam Nabi Azad who feel it was important to send signals to non-BJP
parties about its willingess to play ball. For instance, Mukherjee who
is keen on a coalition does not see any benefit of an electoral tie-up
with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. He feels the Left Front should
be allowed to return to power in the state in lieu of support to a Congress-led
government at the Centre in future.
"The resolutions are not aimed at forming
the government but opening a dialogue with the rest of the Opposition,"
says a CWC member. To party MPs, however, the political as well as economic
resolutions were meant merely for improving floor coordination in Parliament.
Floor coordination has not extended beyond chatting up leaders in aisles
after the adjournment of the houses. An MP says, "Till now, we have
not been able to get all the non-Congress parties to the table."
Similarly, the economic resolution that commits the party to ensuring
government equity in public-sector units does not fall below 51 per cent
was aimed at placating the Left. Party leaders recall how the P.V. Narasimha
Rao government itself had retained only 50 per cent stake in Maruti Udyog
Limited.
According to an AICC functionary the resolutions
were aimed at ending the party's isolation. "We were like the wall
flower. Nobody wanted to dance with us. Now we are not even insisting
that we will lead the alliance and this marks a tectonic movement."
The 1998 Pachmarhi declaration had decided to maintain equidistance from
communal as well as casteist parties. As a result the party could not
enlist support of caste-based parties in April 1999. Now it has decided
to woo caste-based constituents in the treasury as well as opposition
benches. "We are not only looking at forming the government at the
Centre but also for alliances in states," says CWC special invitee
Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was a member of the panel that drafted the political
resolution.
A surprise element in the Bangalore resolution
was the party's bid to revive its decade-old position on the Ayodhya issue.
The document reiterated that the Congress was not "against the construction
of Ram temple at Ayodhya". The last time the party expressed such
a sentiment was in its 1991 election manifesto. The reference raised the
hackles of Muslim leaders as there was no customary reference to the inviolability
of the Supreme Court's verdict in the matter. The Jamaat-e-Islami even
staged a protest in Kerala against the resolution. But Sonia refused to
budge. She incorporated a reference to the apex court only as an amendment
moved by a delegate. Partymen viewed this as her studied attempt to establish
her Hindu credentials. The importance she gave to former prime minister
Narasimha Rao-she consulted him in drafting the economic policy resolution-also
riled the minority community leaders.
Senior leaders, however, attach little value
to such theoretical exercises. "We lost time. We did not take the
initiative to cobble together an alternative," admits one. The rank
and file clearly appeared to resent Sonia's failure to lead the Opposition.
Which was why when former Union minister Chandrajit Yadav blamed Sonia
for failing to seize the opportunity, no one hooted. When one delegate
from Amethi protested noisily, party workers quietly escorted him out
of the venue.
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