The on-going melodrama at the Congress theatre has all the trappings of a tear-jerker with heart-rending scenes evoking painful memories of Titanic, just before the ship sank. Congressmen’s sense of dejection at the sudden turn of events that has rendered their shipshape party a drowning wreck in a jiffy is wholly understandable.
Besides the obvious dangers in changing captains mid-sea especially when the ship was on course, the current crisis gets even more compounded as there is no other leader who can take the party ashore and to power. At least that is what the Congressmen believe. A rudderless Congress, in their perception would soon end up at the bottom of the ocean, along with their own mega dreams of power, pelf and position.
Those seven minutes during which Sonia delivered the earth-shattering thunderbolt literally sealed the fate of Congressmen. After all how can a Pranab or an Arjun survive without the munificent shade of Sonia’s pallu? But crisis brings the best out of these professional survivors.
And with a typical optimism and an overwhelming unanimity that only an unmitigated love for power can generate, these men and their ilk, who abound in the party have bounced back with renewed vigour. No, they are not looking outside of the dynasty for succour, that would be unbecoming of Congressmen and in any case, a bit too much of optimism on our part.
Instead, and as expected, the CWC rejected the resignation, thereby proving to the world at large that the party can defy Sonia too! What a display of bravado and what a show of inner party democracy! The reluctant lady will now have no choice but to obey the diktats of the party and reconcile herself to leading it.
The drama did not end there. Soon after the leader came to the CWC and left it in a trice, it was the turn of the CWC to go to her with their resolution. With several warts and quite a few stalwarts too, lining up before 10, Janpath beseeching Sonia to stay put and save the Congress and thereby the nation too, the Congmen’s cup of woes is indeed overflowing though their sense of shame had evaporated long back.
PCC chiefs despatch ‘unsolicited’ support letters to their ‘unwilling’ leader, effigies of the ‘betrayers’ are burnt, probably because they themselves were not available to be torched, and meetings are convened all over the country to express solidarity with the only leader, even as cries for the heads of the troublesome trio rend the air.
The sycophantic upsurge today reached a peak with three Congress Chief Ministers even submitting their resignations to their ‘Governor’, in a bid to pressurise her to relent. One can reasonably expect longer bouts and new highs, or is it lows,of such unabashed servility if Sonia continues to remain ‘disinterested’.
Adults should not cry and instead are expected to maintain their composure at all cost. But here is the strange spectale of a hundred year old party behaving like a spoilt child, rolling head over heels at the prospect of being rendered headless and therefore, powerless. What are the Congressmen gaining by their current unseemly display of downright slavishness?
Do they think they are serving the party’s long nourished reputation by fawning and drooling before an individual, who has no track record of service either to the party or to the nation? Does it not appeal to their sensibilities, if not as Congressmen, at least as mere men, that a party of yore should not become the sole preserve of a dowager, who herself has no qualms about using it for her own ends.
Survival is important in politics, but survival at any cost on an intrinsically shaky plank, which is what Sonia’s bid for power is, can prove disastrous both for Congressmen and the nation too. By giving the impression that Sonia is the only hope for the Congress, the partymen are only insulting the hallowed Congress legacy. And by suggesting that she is the sole messiah of deliverence for the nation itself, Congressmen are guilty of defaming the entire country and its people.
Here is where the sulking lady’s self-imposed silence speaks volumes of her real intent. Having delivered a decisive blow, though in a fit of knee-jerk reaction, the lady now probably is enjoying the show of solidarity. But would she allow such exposition of eccentricities, if she had one bit of respect for the party nurtured by her ‘husband, M-in-law and grandfather-in law’?
Would she, if she posesses even a wee bit of reverence for all those who sacrificed their all for the party, permit such shows of spinelessness by the shady successors, most of whom do not even have a base beyond their bedrooms? What else did Sonia expect from the CWC, the cadre and leaders alike?
That they would unanimously accept her resignation, thank her for her services, bid her farewell and then elect a new leader? Had her intentions been honourable she would have just ruled herself out of the PM’s race, at least for the present and confined herself to the party position. But then that would be self-betrayal. The current scenario of cooked up indispensability is quite ego-tickling and very rewarding too. It is obvious that she needs the party more than it needs her though she would like us all to believe otherwise.
And one cannot blame her because it is Congressmen who have emboldened her to entertain such presumptuous ideas. But, should the nation also follow suit?
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