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Kanchan Gupta

The Indian voter will choose Ram Rajya over Rome Rajya

When the Congress decided to go on the offensive over the Jain Commission report, it did not realise that it would soon find itself trapped in a no-win situation. Politicians have a short memory of events and issues. Congress politicians forgot that there already exist two other reports related to the Nehru-Gandhi family assassinations. The first is the Thakkar Commission’s report and the second is the Verma Commission’s report.

The Thakkar Commission’s report accused R K Dhawan of being involved in the conspiracy behind Indira Gandhi’s assassination, saying the needle of suspicion pointed towards the man who is today one of the cheerleaders demanding action against the DMK for being indicted by the Jain Commission. The Verma Commission listed nine reasons why the Congress itself is to blame for the death of its leader Rajiv Gandhi. According to this report penned by the man who is today the Chief Justice of India, ‘Congress partymen did not exhibit the kind of discipline and behaviour which it was reasonable to expect from them in the interest of the security of their party president when the high threat to him was known generally to everyone. This was a lapse of the Congress party…'

When it demanded a discussion on the Jain Commission report, the Congress had obviously not bargained for the fact that the other two reports would also come up for mention. After all, the Narasimha Rao government, which was very much a Congress government, had categorically asserted, which commenting on the Verma Commission report, that the security cover for Rajiv Gandhi was adequate. When they realised their folly, Congress leaders changed tacks and demanded that there should be no discussion but the DMK ministers must be dropped from the United Front government if it wanted the Congress to continue with its support.

The Front has been quick to latch on to the Congress weakness, that it wants to avoid a discussion at any cost. Hence, despite the best attempts of Mulayam Singh Yadav and his Marxist mentor Harkishan Singh Surjeet to squeeze the DMK out of the Front, the DMK continues to dig in, daring the Congress to push for a no-confidence vote or withdraw support. Either way, the Congress is bound to turn up the loser.

For, if the Congress withdraws support, then the Gujral government can force a confidence vote. During the debate, all that the Congress wants to suppress will come out into the open. On the other hand, if the Congress moves a no-confidence motion, then, too, a full debate will take place during which the Thakkar and Verma reports will be quoted along with uncomfortable facts like the Bofors inquiry and the Ranganath Misra Commission report on the 1984 riots. Either move may lead to the UF government’s fall and a mid-term poll, but at the end of the day the Congress will enter the electoral race with a severe handicap.

Already, the Congress finds itself accused of forcing a north-south divide and inflaming anti-Tamil passions. The more the crisis lingers, the more this charge will stick.

The question that arises is: Why did the Congress get into such a situation? The answer lies in Sitaram Kesri’s weak leadership and the overvaulting ambition of petty men like Arjun Singh. Kesri may be the Congress president, but he has more foes than friends in the party. Having manoeuvered himself into office, he has failed to establish authority over his partymen and there are few in the Congress, including those who were once considered to be close to him, who are willing to listen to their leader. Congressmen know that by hitching their fortunes to Kesri’s leadership, they will only lose the next round of elections.

At the same time, there is no other Congress leader who can carry the entire party with him. Yes, there are pretenders like Arjun Singh, but they do not command the support of more than a few MPs. Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy may command the support of Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh, but it is doubtful whether he can lead a successful campaign in the Hindi heartland. Sharad Pawar has lost whatever little support that he enjoyed in Maharashtra; even on his own home turf in Baramati he could not get the party to win the local elections. Jitendra Prasada, yet another pretender, could not keep the party together in Uttar Pradesh. Rajesh Pilot never mattered in Congress politics and is of little relevance today.

In this scenario, the Jain Commission’s report was seen as god’s gift to the Congress, at least by those who believe they can reoccupy the treasury benches by getting Sonia Gandhi to take over the party. All sorts of stories have been doing the rounds this past fortnight. Somebody floated the rumour that Sonia Gandhi was preparing to not only campaign for the party but also to contest the next general election from Amethi. Congressmen from the southern states, who have been in the forefront of the campaign to dislodge the UF government because they are the best placed among all the state Congress units, were quick to counter this claim by spreading the story that Sonia Gandhi would contest from Chikmagalur in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, a leading Delhi-based hotelier and businessmen, known for his proximity to the Gandhi household, is believed to have already made a bid for Sultanpur, hoping to ride to victory if Sonia Gandhi contests from Amethi.

Sonia Gandhi, of course, has maintained her enigmatic silence. But there are occasions when silence is more eloquent than spoken words. This is one such occasion. She could have issued a statement, putting an end to all speculation, She could have distanced herself from Congress shenanigans that have brought governance to a standstill and paralysed the entire official machinery. She could have rebuked the Congress for making a mockery of parliamentary traditions. Instead, she has allowed her name to become the focal point of a campaign that threatens to destablise the Indian polity as never before.

It is not Sonia loyalists like Arjun Singh (who is not even an MP, having lost from his pocket borough in the last election) who are to blame for the fact that Parliament has not been allowed to function for a single day since it met for the winter session, because of which crucial decisions and legislative work has been put on hold. It is Sonia Gandhi herself who is to blame for this because she is very much a part of the present game of destabilisation. From behind the walls of 10 Janpath, where she lives at the Indian taxpayer’s expense, the Italian widow of Rajiv Gandhi is trying to manipulate Indian politics to her favour.

This is the plain and simple truth. Sitaram Kesri knows it. But he also knows that he is all alone today. Therefore, he declares that only Sonia Gandhi can save the Congress and thus save the country! Well, the Congress is no longer India because India’s interests are no longer the Congress's interests. By taking over the Congress, directly or indirectly, Sonia Gandhi may ‘save’ the party, but in such an eventuality, India needs to save itself from the Congress.

If the Congress forces a mid-term election on the issue of the Jain Commission’s report (which reads like a Congress party document and not an impartial judicial review) then Indian voters will have to make a simple choice: They can either have Ram Rajya or Rome Rajya.

Anybody who has been following the course of Indian electoral trends since 1989, will predict that the voter will unhesitatingly chose Ram Rajya over Rome Rajya.

As I said in the beginning, the Congress is caught in a no-win situation.

Kanchan Gupta