HVK Archives: Congress adrift - Editorial
Congress adrift - Editorial - Times of India - Editorial
Posted By ashok (ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
19 June 1996
Title : Congress Adrfit
Publication : Times of India - Editorial
Date : June 19, 1996
The Congress working committee session confirms that the
party leadership, like the Bourbons of France, will
forget nothing and learn nothing. Party president
Narasimha Rao's exasperated outburst at being "fed up"
with Mr Rajesh Pilot would have been understandable if Mr
Rao had shown the grace to concede that many in his
party, too, have reason to be fed up with his style of
leadership. Nothing of the sort has yet happened and
this is not surprising in a party which has squandered
every opportunity for honest introspection of the causes
of its defeat. Admittedly, its defeat in the Lok Sabha
election is in part a reaffirmation of the historical
attrition of its support base to reverse which little has
been done in the last 12 years. The realignments caused
by the `mandir' and 'mandal' issues in the last six years
have shrunk the party's vote base to an all-time low, so
much so that in Uttar Pradesh, for example, its vote
percentage is in single digit, way behind outfits like
the BSP and the Samajwadi Party. Even before it was
decimated to this alarming degree there were enough
signals for the party to identity its weaknesses with a
view to overcoming them, developing its strength and
reorienting its appeal for social constituencies which
had been alienated by its policies. But during its last
five years in office the party did little to devote
itself to these on the assumption that power prevails
over all else.
Now that a stunning electoral rout has consigned the
country's oldest party to the political margin there is
some soul-searching going on within the more serious and
committed sections of the party. The urge to revive the
moribund organisation explains the call to unite all ex-
Congressmen who had moved away from the party since
1969.
This move to unite Congressmen of all hues makes sense,
given the reality of the Congress, even in its fragmented
state, polling eight percentage points more than the BJP
in the Lok Sabha elections. With the Congress spread
being wider and deeper than that of the BJP across the
country, the move to reunite Congressmen may revive the
party's sagging presence in several states and help it to
mop up support of the social groups excluded by the BJP
and constituents of the United Front. The UF is clearly
in no mood to appease Brahmins and upper castes who
have
been gravitating towards the BJP. The Congress, despite
the BJP's dramatic ascendancy, still commands significant
support not only among Brahmins but also the Scheduled
Castes and Tribes. Its secular credentials, severely
tarnished but not destroyed, offer hope of
remobilisation. While Mr Rao's detractors accuse him of
impeding the revival of the party, they have yet to
reveal what their alternative strategy for the party's
rejuvenation is. If not now, at least by the time the
AICC meets, the anti-Rao group must come forward with a
credible alternative agenda for the party's future which
goes beyond a symbolic change of guard.
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