(Tehelka.com December 17, 2005)
Congress on a Right diet
Gorging on saffron can, however, be a risky proposition
By Vijay Simha
In its intellectually stimulating years, the Congress gained from the presence of right-leaning men like Vallabhbhai Patel, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and Purushottam Das Tandon. Debates from those years lent shape to Congress policy. The ability to maintain equidistance from the Right and the Left became the central Congress motif. Today, the party has rightists like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. But the perspective has narrowed.
For some time now, the Congress has been looking rightward. It’s been admitting Shiv Sena rebels in its ranks in Maharashtra, it cut deals with the RSS and the BJP in Kerala, joined hands with the BJP in Andhra Pradesh to defeat the tdp in municipal elections, was ready to get Madan Lal Khurana over to its side in Delhi, and even Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit took the help of the BJP’s Jagdish Mukhi, Opposition leader in the Delhi Assembly, to tide over the power tariff crisis. Now there are moves to see if the Sena’s Raj Thackeray can be taken in as well.
Not one of the rightists the Congress welcomed has contributed to political thought. They are mostly people who practice politics for immediate ends like power. The Congress already has enough of them. Adding more may not necessarily yield in the long term. One motive may be to beef up the numbers, given the Congress situation in the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra Assembly. But that doesn’t explain Kerala, Delhi, and Andhra Pradesh.
As if all this was not enough, the RSS and the Congress enacted a bizarre ritual in Bhopal in October. The RSS held a march where they had placards praising Mahatma Gandhi, and the Madhya Pradesh Congress pretended that nothing had happened. There are many occasions from the past when the RSS has been soft on the Congress and harsh on the Left. However, for the Congress to tango with the BJPwhile asking the Left to play the music is a bit heavy.
There is barely any difference between the Congress and the BJP on economic policies. It would appear that electoral differences are narrowing as well. Curiously, there seems to be an understanding that the Congress will not target the family of Atal Behari Vajpayee, meaning his foster son Ranjan Bhattacharya, while the BJP hardly says anything on the heirs of 10 Janpath. cpm general secretary Prakash Karat and bsp chief Mayawati have caught on to this proximity between the Congress and the BJP.
It is a camaraderie that smacks of smartness, not gravity. Parties that get smart in a hurry tend to repent at leisure. The Congress can’t afford that.
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