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What is common to Sitaram Kesri and a soap bubble? Both are
transparent, contain nothing substantial, and burst when they reach
the top.
Two months ago, Kesri was the rising hope of all true Congressmen.
He had wormed his way into the Congress presidency, and then
bulldozed into the CPP leadership.
All that remained was the third of the posts once held by the
Gandhis and Narasimha Rao prime minister of India. Kesri's lust
for that office was clear. For all his sniggering disclaimers, it
was apparent that he was out to unseat H D Deve Gowda.
That was a tall order for a party with just over 140 MPs in the Lok
Sabha. So Chacha Kesri set out to swell his numbers. Having avoided
voters for 25 years, Kesri's chosen tactic was not elections. It
was the tried and tested business tactic of mergers and
acquisitions.
Aided by the trinity of Anwar, Azad and Antony, this was what the
new Congress president set out to do. He acquired Arjun Singh (the
man who tried to persuade Rajiv Gandhi to deny Kesri a Rajya Sabha
nomination). He emerged with the one-man outfits of Madhavrao
Scindia and Bangarappa. He generously handed out Congress tickets
to Buta Singh and Kamal Nath.
It was not enough to bring back seam-tained Congressmen. Which is
why the Congress president set out to woo scam-tainted leaders of
the United Front notably the Yadav bandhu.
Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav have reason to believe
that a Prime Minister Kesri would be far more accommodating than a
Prime Minister Deve Gowda.
Getting Tewari, Scindia, Arjun, Buta, Kamal, Laloo and Mulayam to
back a Kesri bid for the top was easy enough. But the icing on the
cake, the coup that would make the Congress the largest party in
the Lok Sabha was to be acquisition of the Tamil Maanila Congress.
The reasoning was that Moopanar was in the same boat as the rest.
If they were embroiled in the Hawala, Fodder and the Ayurveda
scams, the TMC president's name had appeared in the Indian Bank
scandal. At this point the bubble burst.
Moopanar decided he didn't gain a fig from joining hands with Kesri
& Co. He is right.
First, the voters of Tamil Nadu care nothing for Kesri. So the TMC
wouldn't gain any vote by accepting his leadership.
Second, whether or not Moopanar signed on, the Congress would be
far from a majority in this Lok Sabha. To reach the magic figure
of 271 the support of the LF, TDP, DMK and the rest would be
needed. Moopanar knew his UF comrades gagged at the thought.
Third, Moopanar can rest in the cynical assurance that the Indian
Bank investigations would respect a certain Lakshman rekha. After
all, the TMC controls the concerned ministry.
So the TMC chief pricked the Kesri bubble. Adding salt to the
wound, Moopanar pointed out that a merger could be considered only
under the leadership of someone as charismatic as Sonia Gandhi. He
did not add that Kesri knows nothing about pulling in votes, but
then he did not need to do so.
The problem is that Sitaram Kesri is really too old to be at the
pinnacle. I don't mean old in years (Morarji Desai was older when
he rose to the top), but old in ideas. He is in the Indira Gandhi
mould. But an imitation is proverbially inferior.
The protection racket that Sitaram Kesri tried to use to rope in
Moopanar was one of Mrs Gandhi's ploys. He enjoyed a ringside view
as the lady made sure her flock did not stray.
Sukhadia, for instance, would be periodically reminded of the
Chhoti Sadri case. Brahmananda Reddy was taunted with talk of a
CBI probe into the Andhra rice scandal. And so it went.
But the Congress leaders endured it because they knew one fact when
push came to shove Indira Gandhi could sway more voters than they
could individually or collectively. When Narasimha Rao tried it
out, they stuck by him as long as he was the PM. Once deprived of
his post, they turned away. It was a lesson that Kesri should have
remembered.
The flip side is that all the waverers shall flock to Kesri if he
can prove his vote catching skills. And there are, in fact, two
elections coming up.
The first is the Punjab Assembly election later this week. It is a
measure of Kesri's confidence that his henchmen are preparing a
damage control exercise before a single vote is cast.
Next in line are the Congress's own organisational polls. These
have to be held on or before May 31, 1997. At stake is nothing
less than Kesri's presidency of the party.
His successes, such as they are, have been the result of intricate
backroom manoeuvres. Kesri did not become the Congress president or
CPP leader through honest elections. He won by running away from
polls, even as lackeys murmured pious platitudes about party unity.
Of course, Congressmen have been trained to forget their backbones
ever since Indira Gandhi named the party after herself. So it is
possible that Kesri, unloved and unhealthy as he is, shall continue
to loll in his party posts.
But all the manipulative skills of Anwar, Azad, and Antony shall
falter when voters can't be bulldozed or manipulated into the false
"consensus." That, unfortunately for Kesri, is the true test of a
Congress leader.
Is it curtains for Sitaram Kesri? I believe his pinpricks will
continue for a while. There will be more petty complaints that
ministers don't stuff themselves at Kesri's Iftaar. There will be
some desperate flailing through use of the Jain Commission to whip
up Gandhi loyalists, and apologies over the Ayodhya episode. (Why
did not Kesri quit the Rao ministry citing these issues as Arjun
Singh did?)
But all this is pointless. If Kesri is serious about reviving the
party, he should concentrate on winning voters, not MPs.
Worst of all, his efforts have not been crowned with success. With
or without Tewari, Scindia, Bangarappa et al, the Congress is far
from the top spot in the Lok Sabha. And even farther from forming
its own ministry.
If he can't win over 271 MPs (or get 59 congressmen elected in
Punjab), he can always concentrate on winning enough delegates to
be elected Congress president. May I suggest an election slogan
'Accused of India unite, you have nothing to lose but your
handcuffs!'
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