Author: Ajay Bose
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 27, 2006
The Congress party has very little to offer
to people and is also suffering on account of perceptional differences between
its leaders Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh
UPA boss Sonia Gandhi appears to have firmly
put the brakes on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's economic and foreign policy
agenda. Obviously, with an eye to the Congress party's wider concern about
its dwindling electoral base, she has thought it fit to make a landmark vision
statement at the recent Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that considerably
dilutes the UPA regime's thrust to make India a global superpower in economic
and strategic terms.
Ms Gandhi's public warning that it would be
mistake to give higher priority to superpower status or high digit economic
growth over better living standards for the masses may well signal a slowdown
in economic liberalisation as well as a more conventional foreign policy in
the remaining few years of the Government's present term in office.
This is perhaps the first time that Ms Sonia
Gandhi has so categorically spelt out her vision for India, although, she
has more than once made off-the-cuff remarks about the need to give social
and economic relief to poor and marginalised people in the country. Interestingly,
she has also chosen to rubbish the hype about India becoming a superpower
so prevalent in the power establishment including the PMO egged on by large
sections of the media. Ms Gandhi has deliberately pricked the superpower balloon
by remarking that "hegemony, power politics, military might and conflict"
were associated with this label. It is, of course, quite another matter that
her mother-in-law and role model Indira Gandhi when in saddle was quite fond
of precisely these muscular tendencies.
Yet, it takes rare courage and a fair degree
of political self-confidence to publicly debunk what the electronic and print
media has turned into a daily litany on India becoming a global superpower.
Similarly, while most regimes and rulers in the recent past have tended to
give themselves a pat on the back for high economic growth, the UPA chairperson
has sought to qualify the high digit growth under her own Government by pointing
out that it has been accompanied by widening disparities between the rich
and the poor. By cautioning Mr Singh and his cabinet not to get "false
illusions of grandeur and power" because of a few successes on the economic
and foreign policy fronts, Ms Gandhi is making an important political intervention.
Much of the Congress president's cautionary
advice to the Prime Minister not to forget his larger political constituency
because of applause from the chattering classes stems from genuine alarm at
the party's lukewarm electoral prospects. With the Congress heading for another
mauling in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls and possible ouster from power
in Punjab early next year, Ms Gandhi is keen for a more populist policy framework
by the Government. Even if it is a bit too late to make a difference in these
two States, she is desperate for some political returns as the build-up begins
for the next round of parliamentary polls.
In fact, it is this growing political disquiet
within the Congress leadership about the low political dividend of the UPA
Government's economic and foreign policy priorities that had led to a visible
strain between Ms Gandhi and Mr Singh as the former sought to distance the
party from some official policies. However, since their personal relations
remained close, the two leaders appear to have worked out a compromise. This
has involved the UPA chairperson giving her wholehearted vote of confidence
in the Prime Minister in return for a dilution of his earlier gung-ho policies
on the economy and in foreign affairs.
Mr Singh and his close aides are now resigned
to go slow on the more controversial parts of the economic reforms that may
antagonise the urban and rural poor. Similarly, the pronounced pro-US tilt
of the Government at the cost of it relations with important Islamic powers
like Iran are being abandoned with an eye on Muslim vote. Most importantly,
key officials are being far more accommodative to political and often personal
pressures from the Congress, which had earlier presented a long list of complaints
to Ms Gandhi that Prime Minister and his men simply did not care about the
party.
While the retreat by the Government on the
policy front will no doubt buy it peace with the Congress as well as with
the Left and regional allies, this may not necessarily bring in more votes
to the ruling coalition. The complexities of Indian electoral politics are
so deep that simplistic calculations about what appeals to the poor and marginalised
voter often do not work.
Unfortunately for the Congress, it has good
reason to be politically tentative since as a party it has so little new to
offer to the people. It is also handicapped by the temperament of its two
main leaders, neither of whom are instinctive politicians but reluctant recruits
to the rough-and-tumble of Indian politics. However, the party can take cheer
from a single stroke of good fortune - the main Opposition party, BJP, and
its allies, are in even bigger political mess. Ultimately, it is the weakness
of its opponents that may serve the ruling coalition far more than what it
may or may not do on the policy front.
