The 19th of November happens to be former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s birthday. The Congressmen of the country will no doubt go through the motions of homage to the stain leader but there is little hope that there would be any introspection within the party on this occasion, Rather, the inevitable early morning visitors to Shakthi Sthal would be thinking less of the Shakthi who really sustained them and their thoughts’ are more likely to be dominated by the impending tabling of the Jain commission report in the Parliament a few hours later.
The Congressmen need take no offence, for it is only a statement of a harsh reality which is borne out by the fact of their being relegated to a position of insignificance in national politics. The Congress is important today because the UF thinks so, for its survival; the Congress derives its strength only from the UF’s weaknesses. The party leaders really have nothing to their departed leader except disgrace defeat, dissent and desperation.
The Congress survived Mahatma Gandhi’s suggestion to disband it because of Jawaharlal Nehru charisma. It survived Nehru’s death owing to Indira Gandhi’s guts and tenacity. The party again survived the tragedy of Indira’s assassination because her son filled the leadership void and led the party to an unprecedented success at the hustings riding the crest of a sympathy wave. But the party has certainly not survived Rajiv’s death which unmistakably is a sad commentary on the Congressmen’s inability to do without a central rallying point. The present attempt to woo Sonia Gandhi on the pretext of the Jain Commission revelations is once again a shameless exhibition by the party leaders of their inability to think beyond the Nehru family for rescue. It is not that such a thing should not happen, It is just that the family has already shed enough blood not only for the nation, which it did willingly, but also undeservedly for a bunch of spine-less politicians in the party.
Sitaram Kesri and his mutely crown today present a picture of hurt and indignation at the exposures in the Jain report. But, pray what was the initial reaction of the Congress president when the same appeared in the media? He said the party‘s support was not linked to the panel’s probe, What does he say now? The party would certainly consider the issue of support to UF, if the report is not tabled in the Parliament on November 19th. What prompted this metamorphosis from softness to saber-rattling? Was it because of a deep love for Rajiv and the keenness of the Congress to get at the bottom of the plot that killed Rajiv? Or was it because others in the Congress, especially the likes of Pranab and Jitendra Prasada tended to walk away with the honours for exploiting the Jain panel issue? We are inclined to think that only the latter is true. But of course the detractors too are not a virtuous lot and are more guided by an intention to upstage Kesri rather than a genuine concern to know the truth. Had such a concern only existed in all these years the revelations would have really been old wine by now.
Once again it is Rajiv, in absentia, who has become the rallying point. Even then it has taken the Congress a long time to speak in one voice. It is most unfortunate that the martyred leaders of the Congress are more remembered only when the internecine wranglings and games of one upmanship reach a climax within the party, but are forgotten when the party and its leaders are ‘comfortably’ placed, albeit owing to those leaders’ sacrifices. Otherwise how can one explain, the inaction on the Verma Commission’s or the Thakkar Commission’s report when it was the Congress which was in power when they were submitted? No wonder the Congress had to face the ignominy and remain silent when the AP CM had the audacity to suggest that there is nothing wrong if the Jain report is also consigned to the same fate.
While there can be no defence of the UF government for sitting over this report for over two months, obviously for its survival and to protect one of its architects, the Congress too has long back forfeited its privilege to pillory the UF on this count.
The gentle Rajiv remains immortal in people’s memory and it is the people who are genuinely impatient to get their suspicions confirmed on who took his life and who ‘allowed’ it to happen. The perpetrators cannot escape the people’s court where it is intent and not hard evidence that will weigh the scales.
For now, the D-Day is November 1 9th for us to witness our parliamentary democracy on display. We in Tamilnadu only hope that there is no power tripping in the State as happened when the Jain report first came to light last weekend, to prevent us from tuning in to every channel under the sun. I am not responsible, if you read between the lines.
e-mail the writer at [email protected]