Author: K. Natwar Singh
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: February 26, 2007
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/260207-features.html
The Election Commission's announcement of
the U.P.elections has put an end to the insane and unseemly hurry of some
sections of the Congress Working Committee to impose President's rule in U.P.Full
marks to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for standing his ground and for once
asserting himself. Credit should also be given to M/s.Pranab Mukherjee and
Law minister Hansraj Bharadwaj for strengthening the hands of the Prime Minister.
The CPM in no uncertain terms made it clear that enough was enough. Finally
the President's advising correction finally won the day.
There is egg on many Congress faces. Arrogance
has no place in a democracy. It is arrogance that has reduced a great party
to a not so great party. Arrogance has not been a part of traditional political
culture-it's a new virus in the Congress of Sonia Gandhi.
Let's look at the map of India from Kerala
to Kashmir. No Congress government in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnatak, Orissa,
West Bengal, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar
Pradesh. Congress is a senior partner in Kashmir and Maharashtra. In Maharashtra
the local elections showed Congress in poor light. From all indications Congress
is not likely to do well in Punjab and Uttarakhand.
What is left? Andhra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh
and a patchy Assam. In Delhi the Municipal corporation elections will see
the Congress getting a drubbing. How have things come to such a sorry state?
Who is responsible? The Congress high command.
What does this high command consist of? One
individual, who is given to frequent sulks and tantrums. Dissent is disloyalty.
But dissent in any democratic party is its strength. The history of the Congress
clearly shows that from 1907 onwards dissent has existed.
In 1907 there was the rift between the extremists
and moderates. In the early twenties the Swarajists, including Motilal Nehru
left Gandhiji in no doubt about where they stood on entry into the Legislative
Councils. Gandhiji, the great reconciler made the Swaraj Party a subsidiary
of the main body.
In the early thirties a socialist group was
formed within the Congress. Its leading lights were Jaiprakash Narayan, Minoo
Masani, Ashok Mehtra, Rammanohar Lohia and E.M.Nambudiripad. No one called
them names. No discourtesy was shown to them. Nehru had a soft corner for
them. The only time Gandhiji acted in a non-Gandhian way was when Subhas Chandra
Bose defeated Gandhiji's personal choice for Congress Presidentship- Pattabhi
Sitaramaiyya in 1938.
Bose was thrown out of the Congress. But the
letters exchanged between the Mahatma and the Subhash Babu are eminently civilized
and no name calling entered the correspondence. Rajaji was expelled from the
Congress in 1942 and did not participate in the Quit India Movement.
As soon as Gandhiji was released from prison
on 6.5.1944, he sent for Rajaji. In the post 1947era there are many examples
of dissent by distinguished Congress dissenters, Acharya Kripalaui, D.P.Mishra,
Morarji Desai, Arjun Singh, N.D.Tiwari and Sharad Pawar. It is only now that
abuse and bad manners have become a part of the political culture of the Congress.
The leader does nothing to chek it.
The downfall of the Congress is a national
tragedy of monumental proportions. Its revival will need something more than
prostrating before an individual whose divorce from democratic functioning
of the party is doing irreparable damage.
In 1904 the great poet Mohd.Iqbal wrote a
poem -Taswire- Dard about the dismal state of India. We have to read Congress
for India and that should open some Congress eyes.
Rulata hai tera nazaara ai Hindusten mujh
ko Ki ibarat khaiz hai tera fasana sub fasano mein Chupa kar aasteen main
bijlian rakhee hain gardroon ne Anadil bagh ke ghafil na baithein ashiyano
mein Watan ki fikr kar nadaan musibat aaney wali hai Teri barbadion ke mashware
hain aasmano mein Zara dekh isko jo kuch ho raha hai, honai wala hain Dhara
kaya hai bhala ahead-ekuhan ki dastano mein.
The English translation is: O'Hindustan, (read
Congress) your panorama makes me cry, For your tale is more pathetic and premonitory
than other tales, Heavens have concealed thunder storms under the horizons,
Let not the nightingales of the garden remain unaware of the danger.
Get concerned about the motherland, O ! innocent
compatriot, trouble is in store for you, There are signs of your destruction
in the skes above. Look at what is happening now, and what is in store for
the future, Nothing would be gained by harping on the tales of the past.
That the talks between Foreign Ministersof
India & Pakwere held in spite of the horror of the Samjhouta express is
a good sign. Five years ago this meeting would have been called off and intemperate
and unbridled name calling would have followed. No terrorist act should be
allowed to derail (forgive the pun) the peace process.
We need to keep one thing in mind. Without
internal, domestic co-hesion, foreign policy and diplomacy suffer and suffer
badly. The next few months are crucial for the stability of the UPA government.
As it is the Maoist menace is making large
parts of several states ungovernable. The Budget session of Parliament will
be convulsive, raucous and stormy. The outcome of the U.P elections will be
known during the session.
The Congress is nowhere in the reckoning and
that will adversely affect the functioning of UPA. The losers, at the national
level do not inspire confidence.
