HVK Archives: Freedom dividend-Are or have you ever been, a Cong member?
Freedom dividend-Are or have you ever been, a Cong member? - India Today
Swapan Dasgupta
()
11 August 1997
Title: The freedom dividend - Are you, or have you ever been, a Congress
member?
Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: India Today
Date: August 11, 1997
No tears will be shed by the editorial classes at Surjit Singh Barnala's
inability to make it as India's next vice-president. The venerable Akali
Dal leader had everything going for him: long administrative experience as
cabinet minister, chief minister and governor, unimpeachable personal
integrity and unflinching patriotism in the face of tremendous adversity.
For those who value political correctness, he is also a Sikh.
Unfortunately. Barnala lacked one attribute that seems to have become
crucial for appointment to high office: he is not and never was, a
Congressman. He is also being propped up by two political parties that have
no organic links with the Congress-the Akali Dal and BJP.
The man destined to become vice-president is different. Krishan Kant is an
honourable man and doubly honourable because, like the prime minister, he
too can boast membership of the Lahore Club and the Saturday Club. But
these badges of distinction are secondary to his real claim to fame: Kant
was one of Indira Gandhi's shouting brigade in her battle against the
Syndicate. Those days they were called the Young Turks and they provided
Mrs Gandhi with an ideological veneer for her reckless subversion of the
country's institutions. The Young Turks directly contributed to the
Emergency that unsettled democracy and the socialism that led to an
exponential growth in corruption and set back economic progress by at least
20 years. Kant is being rewarded for these past services. It is like the
British honouring a veteran who was inextricably linked to Neville
Chamberlain's policy of appeasement but who had second thoughts after
Hitler began bombing London.
As India prepares for the Bhimsen Joshi-Lata Mangeshkar concert on
Independence Day, it is becoming increasingly useful to flaunt a four-anna
membership of a party that was resoundingly rejected by the electorate in
last year's election. It also helps if that association is complemented by
the "progressive" label. The late Aruna Asaf Ali was one of the folk
heroes of the 1942 Quit India movement. So were Ram Manohar Lohia and Jaya
Prakash Narayan, not to mention Chittu Pandey of Ballia and Matangini Hazra
of Midnapore. Yet, only one has been honoured with a posthumous Bharat
Ratna. Is it because one was more close to the Congress and more devoted
to the Soviet Union than the others? Why, for that matter, did this year's
interim honours list exclude Biju Patnaik, the architect of modern Orissa?
Is it because Patnaik wasn't adequately "progressive", even if he was a
Congressman?
When Atal Bihari Vajpayee and E.M.S. Namboodiripad were honoured by
Narasimha Rao with a Padma Vibhushan in 1992, an erstwhile Young Turk
demanded to know the rationale behind honouring "communal forces". He was
not speaking on behalf of the National Integration Council. He was
concerned with the ominous implications of the government recognising those
who were never connected with the Congress.
For 50 years, the Congress has claimed a monopoly over patriotism. For 50
years, the Congress has paid itself a lavish azadi dividend which has far
exceeded the initial investment. It is this rentier income which has now
been channelled to Kant. Britain has recently introduced a "windfall tax"
to reclaim the super-profits from recently-privatised units. Faced with a
financial crunch, the finance minister should be considering a Congress
windfall tax. He will come under its net, but it will doubtless be a very
popular levy.
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