The Rediff Interview/Pranab Mukherjee
'Able politicians emerge
winners against all odds'
Though Pranab Mukherjee may not have won a Lok Sabha election, he has always found himself under unprecedented media glare. Be it his stints as Union finance minister or deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Mukherjee was one of the most powerful leaders in the Congress.
His lack of support base among the electorate in his home state of West
Bengal notwithstanding, the seasoned politician has been wielding immense
clout over party affairs in the state. He now finds himself in an entirely different role as West Bengal pradesh Congress committee president.
Though he has assumed the mantle when the party is facing a stiff challenge from Union Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul
Congress, he sounds confident of the revival of his party's fortunes in the Marxist citadel.
By his own admission, his top priority is to stop the exodus of partymen to the Trinamul. Though he admits that his new post is no bed of roses, he feels an able politician is one who translates a crisis into an advantage.
Detractors from within the party have often charged him with being hand-in-glove with ruling Communists in West Bengal, primarily to ensure his election to the Upper House. However, Mukherjee debunked the allegations and said he was committed to end the Left Front's 24-year-old misrule, which has pushed the state to the brink of bankruptcy.
In his first exclusive interview since his elevation as PCC chief, the former Congress working committee member discusses priorities and strategies to counter the rapid growth of the Trinamul while fighting the Marxists simultaneously. Excerpts from the interview with Rifat Jawaid:
How does it feel to head a party that is facing a crisis just ahead of crucial assembly elections in the state?
The Congress is not facing a crisis. Even if there is some element of truth in that, an able politician can emerge winner against all odds. As PCC chief I will have to convert the so-called crisis to the party's advantage. I am optimistic about the Congress' electoral prospects in next year's assembly elections. I have begun meeting leaders of all district units to chalk out strategies to make our party a reckoning force in West Bengal again.
Representatives of 12 district units are meeting me over the next few days. I will also start touring the state from September 9 to mobilise support. I will strive hard to restore the party's glory.
Your adversaries call you a Marxist. They accuse you of securing their tacit support to get elected to the Rajya Sabha.
I don't know where have you heard this. Nobody has ever told me this. I am a born Congressman and will remain one till my last breath. So the question of receiving even tacit support doesn't arise. As for my election to the Rajya Sabha, there were sufficient Congress legislators to ensure my victory.
What will be your poll plank in the assembly elections in 2001?
A major election issue will be the Left's misrule. Those who
have been in power for over 23 years owe an explanation to the electorate. People are beaten to death by party cadres. Later, they come out with a justification that those killed were criminals. Where is the law that empowers you to kill somebody at will, primarily on the suspicion that he had anti-social links? This is not a democratic process.
See what happened in Nanoor. Innocent people are being killed virtually
everywhere in West Bengal. Every day, you find one or two persons
falling prey to political rivalry. What administration are you running? Do you still call it a democracy when a senior minister says that his cadres were using only licensed arms? Soon after coming to power in 1977, when the Left Front government released 1200 convicts, the message was loud and clear. It amply indicated the shape of things to come.
Would you then support the Trinamul and its allies' demand for imposition of President's rule in the state in the wake of the deteriorating law and order situation?
Imposing Article 356 is purely a constitutional provision. Only the President is authorised to take a final decision. He acts on recommendations by the Council of Ministers and the governor of the state concerned. Many leaders are shouting themselves hoarse, demanding that Article 356 be imposed, but can you deny the people an elected government indefinitely?
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have been accusing the Congress of
not supporting them on the question of President's rule. But many don't
remember that they themselves once deleted such a provision in the 42nd amendment to the Constitution. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani were foreign minister and information and broadcasting minister respectively at that time. The Congress government reintroduced it.
The situation is bad in West Bengal. The state machinery has collapsed and law and order must be restored. But the moot question remains as to whether mere imposition of President's rule will help things improve. Will people from Mars or other planets change the failed machinery for good?
North Bengal is likely to become a major poll issue in the next assembly polls after the Kamtapuris and Gorkhas' demand for statehood. What will be the Congress' stand?
Neither can we support secession nor are we votaries of violence. But underdevelopment, the root cause of such demands, should be addressed with utmost sincerity. As Planning Commission deputy chairman, I had formed the Teesta development project under the chairmanship of the chief minister. It was agreed that while the Centre will pay Rs 1.7 billion, the remaining Rs 1.3 billion will be taken care of by the state government. But unfortunately that did not happen.
Core issues of underdevelopment have to be addressed. We supported Vananchal, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh. Demands are also being made for
statehood for Tilangana, Vidarbha and Kach. Keeping such new issues
in mind, the All India Congress Committee has formed a monitoring cell with me as its head. The party will not comment on demands for new states till the cell's recommendations are submitted.
You have assumed the PCC's president's post when the party is grappling with a large-scale exodus. How will you check it?
(Frowns) What do you mean by large-scale exodus? Name the leaders who are leaving the Congress.
PCC general secretary Sultan Ahmed has announced his decision to join the Trinamul. He claims to have the support of five legislators. Moreover, the fact that none were present at your felicitation, following your appointment as PCC chief, corroborates that all is not well with the party.
Only Sultan is planning to leave. His claims are mere hogwash. Differences are bound to surface in a democratic party. Eighteen legislators have left the party since the Trinamul's inception in 1998. Many more may go. This may continue for some more time, but it doesn't imply that the Congress is dead.
Will you consider disciplinary action against those involved in cross-voting during the RS poll earlier this year?
It is impossible to identify those who indulged in anti-party activities. When you need the support of 47 legislators and your party has 58 legislators, one expects easy sailing. But sadly, cross-voting by some of our men paved the way for the victory of the Trinamul candidate.
The cross-voting amounted to a crime, but we cannot do anything in this regard, and that's unfortunate.
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