Author: Prafull Goradia
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: June 4, 2003
Congress ka haath, Garib ke saath
is an eloquent slogan, but unfortunately it is obsolete. The age of daridra
narayan passed with the demise of socialism. The evidence in India was
that not a murmur of protest greeted the U-turn the PV Narasimha Rao Government
took in 1991. Though the Congress had won the election on a socialist manifesto,
it went liberal without checking out the views of a single voter. At the
Srinagar conference of Congress Chief Ministers, Ms Sonia Gandhi once again
exhumed socialism from its grave.
Nehruvian secularism is another
dead horse Ms Gandhi brought to life in Srinagar. She rejected not only
VHP leader Pravin Togadia but all enemies of amity! Evidently, this repudiation
of even soft Hindutva is a reaction to the party's defeat in the Gujarat
elections last year. Also, quotas for poor members of the upper castes
are old wine without even a new bottle.
Ms Gandhi is about the first Congress
leader to look back in order to march forward to the coming elections.
Yet her party's traditional record has been to adopt a manifesto to suit
the ground-swell. To prepare for the 1952 general elections, Nehru gave
shelter to Muslim Leaguers who were feeling lost after the trauma of Partition.
From being called a Hindu party, the Congress overnight became a secular
organisation in the eyes of its own accusers, the Leaguers.
At the Avadi session of the Congress,
Nehru in anticipation of the 1957 hustings enunciated a socialist policy
for the future. The 'proletariat' across the country was enticed. The communists
were placated. Many felt the poor were also drawn to the Congress. Indira
Gandhi nationalised banks, collieries and general insurance companies to
demonstrate her sympathy for the poor man. As if that were not enough,
she abolished the privy purses and annual pensions granted to princes in
exchange for the States they had surrendered on the morrow of Independence.
Rajiv Gandhi rode the sympathy wave
following his mother's assassination. To make doubly sure that Indira Gandhi's
death was not forgotten, thousands of Sikhs were massacred in North India
without the Government intervening. However Machiavellian Indira Gandhi
and Sanjay Gandhi may have been, there was no denying their imagination.
Contrast them with the flat-footedness of Rajiv Gandhi in the 1989 election.
He had little to say except to deny he had dirtied his fingers in the mud
of Bofors. Sure enough he lost the elections. Mr Narasimha Rao faced a
similar situation in 1996.
The promise of a Ram Lalla temple
in Ayodhya brought Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee to power in 1998. Pakistani
aggression and the fight back at Kargil ensured his return in 1999. The
NDA may not last forever, but the BJP on its own has any number of trumps
in its pack of cards. Which one is played in 2004 would depend on the circumstances
prevailing on the eve of the polls.
There is no doubt that, in the current
atmosphere, nationalism is winning formula. Indira Gandhi could resort
to aggressive family planning policies in 1975 despite the Congress's commitment
to the well-being of Muslims. Rao switched to liberalisation in 1991, despite
Congress socialism. Why can't Ms Sonia Gandhi dump minority appeasement
for the sake of nationalism? The Congress should be able to think up any
number of nationalist causes. If it cannot, it would do best by plumping
for well-tried saffron. It should remember that the Gujarat election last
December was just one episode, and that one swallow does not make a summer.
