The Times of India
18 September 2007
Congress Loses The Plot
by Suhit Sen
Even in the shabby world of Indian politics, it would be difficult to come by an example of political insanity combined with cynicism of the kind displayed by Congress in the controversy over the affidavit filed in court on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Let's begin with the insanity bit. Archaeology, unlike madness, has its methods and ground rules. And archaeologists are supposed to stick to those rules, even if they happen to work for the government.
An archaeologist cannot be faulted for saying that there is no evidence for the existence of a mythological figure, which is not to conclusively suggest that he did not exist. So with Ram and, by extension, the bridge supposedly built across the Palk Straits by his simian army.
Let us not get into questions about factual plausibility in a story that was never meant to be a realist text in the first place. It would not be unlike cribbing about implausibility after having chosen to go to a Bollywood film.
That the Congress government should have gone into overdrive to make a meal of what the media is pleased to call damage-limitation over so innocuous and obvious a statement raises a question: What damage? Let's just take a look at what has been happening around the country in the recent past.
The sangh parivar organised a demonstration against the desecration of the fictional Ram Setu on September 12. There was no great response to this protest against the Sethu-samudram project, which suggests that the protestors may have been better advised to agitate on the basis of legitimate questions of economic, logistical, technological and environmental objections to it.
On the very same day, the ASI affidavit put in an appearance in the Supreme Court. There was no mass of evidence that the country had been outraged, beyond the routine squawking of the usual Hindutva suspects.
The response nationwide was lukewarm as was the sangh parivar's attempts on September 13 to capitalise on the Congress's damage-limitation. But that was obviously not how the Congress saw it. By making an issue of it, all it did was hand the sangh parivar an issue on a platter.
And was BJP glad? Not only did it not have much to energise itself on -- the Left had more or less hijacked the nuclear issue, which the evidence suggests wasn't an electoral crackerjack anyway -- it was actually in deep water.
An opinion poll has suggested recently that if mid-term elections were held now the ruling coalition would come close to securing a majority on its own, without the support of the Left. Even though this was down from an estimated 300-odd seats in January this year, there was no reason to think that the opposition was battering the door in.
That not all was well in the opposition camp was further indicated by the dissensions coming into the open within the BJP. Two senior leaders, Yashwant Sinha and Murli Manohar Joshi, had issued statements saying that L K Advani was not the party's obvious prime ministerial candidate, never mind the fact that he was the leader of the opposition.
Not a happy family, beset, moreover, with problems with allies such as Shiv Sena and Trinamul Congress followed by the formation of the United National Progressive Alliance from the debris of the National Democratic Alliance.
What can you call throwing an opposition in such disarray a lifeline anything other than insanity? It could be argued that there was genuine outrage within the Congress (even if there wasn't that much outside) that the glorious tradition, mythology, history -- call it what you will -- was dealt with in so cavalier a manner. Which brings us to the cynicism bit.
The most unfortunate part of the story is that opportunism has, over the last four decades especially, become an ingrained reflex of Congress politics. Indira Gandhi's interventions, followed by that of her successors and the slipping certitude of power, have made a lack of principle the hallmark of Congress politics.
There have been moments when the cobwebs have shimmied -- Rajiv Gandhi's first few moments in power, Sonia Gandhi's Pachmarhi resolution, her withdrawal from the prime ministerial race and Manmohan Singh's ascension -- but they have never been in any serious danger of being cleared.
So from Rajiv Gandhi's blatantly mediaeval response in the Shah Bano case to Sonia Gandhi's in the current instance is not perhaps such a long journey.
If obscurantism is reckoned to be a bulwark for power, the Congress will not shy away from embracing it -- that is the message, driven home with a pile-driver. And where does the Congress's ideologically threadbare political calculus come from?
From a profound unwillingness to engage with people, the political process and ideas. Since the party has given up on meaningful mobilisation based on grass-roots engagement, given up on building a broad-based, democratic organisational structure, it is forced to try and second-guess what the people think. And since it has lost faith in the people, it has elected a new people in its own distorted image.
This is the most unfortunate part of today's political reality -- that there is no major, nationwide force left to defend, at the very least, some vestiges of progressive, liberal ground.
(The writer is deputy editor, Down To Earth .)
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