The Hindu : A long way from Pachmarhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 01, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

A long way from Pachmarhi

The Congress, which has been out of power at the Centre for eight years, sees pre-poll alliances or adjustments as the only route to forming a government at the Centre, writes K.V. Prasad.

WHEN THE Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, walked across to her neighbour, Ram Vilas Paswan's residence early this month in her quest for a secular alliance, the news was greeted both with elation and disappointment. There was elation in the camp, which saw in the move a fresh approach to carry forward the party's resolve of bringing together secular parties to effectively challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the general election. And disappointment prevailed among the conservatives who could not reconcile to the fact that Ms. Gandhi ignored the traditions and strength of a 119-year-old all-India party by making a desperate bid to woo a leader whose nascent Lok Janshakti Party has just two MPs and a limited presence in caste-ridden Bihar politics.

Pragmatic politics? Compulsions of a leader of a party rapidly losing ground in the country despite its all-India presence? Although last July at Shimla, the Congress gave a call to all secular parties to come together to defeat the BJP there was little evidence to suggest that the party knew how to go about cobbling together an alliance.

The 2002 election to the Gujarat Assembly was a bitter experience for most Opposition parties that vowed to engage the BJP in a direct fight and urged the Congress to take the lead. But except giving a few token seats to the Left parties, the Congress accommodated none. It was only after the reverses in the December 1 elections that the party was jolted out of its apparent "we can make it alone" attitude.

With the Lok Sabha elections looking inevitable, the Congress was aware that even though it had a pan-Indian presence, the organisation was a shambles in key States such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which together account for 120 Lok Sabha seats. Add to these Jharkhand (14) and Tamil Nadu (39) and the tally climbs to 173 seats. Then in States such as Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the Bahujan Samaj Party has grown to the extent that it can make a critical difference in nearly three score constituencies.

Alliance or understanding with "like-minded" parties was imperative — a suggestion that was emphasised by the Pranab Mukherjee panel that went into the December 2003 Assembly elections rout. Barring the BSP, which in the Congress' reckoning has a decisive presence in 180 Lok Sabha constituencies across four to five States, it had to find partners in other States.

In Maharashtra, the pact with the Nationalist Congress Party, an outfit created by Sharad Pawar, after he was expelled from the Congress for raising Ms. Gandhi's foreign origin issue, was a "necessity" for the survival of both the parties.

Concession was there across the Vindhyas too with the Congress making overtures to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a party it once shunned because in its perception the DMK was sympathetic to the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Congress and the DMK eventually agreed to come together. Barely had the euphoria died down that the Congress came in for a rude shock over the allocation of Pondicherry, where it has a sitting MP, to the Pattali Makkal Katchi. The Congress may have to swallow its pride to ensure the understanding remains in place, a compulsion compounded after the BJP shook hands with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Though the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has serious reservations about joining hands with the Congress, Ms. Gandhi still approached its general secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, and sought advice from his CPI counterpart, A.B. Bardhan. Of the two, the CPI is softer towards the Congress which makes the possibility of an understanding between the two in Punjab bright.

The Congress leadership is aware that the coming general elections would really be the acid test for the party, which has been out of power at the Centre for eight years. And to ensure progress on the path to forming a government at the Centre, pre-poll alliances or adjustments are seen as the only route.

On the necessity of coalitions, the party has travelled a long way from Pachmarhi, when it first took cognisance of this phenomenon, to Shimla. In Pachmarhi, while taking a pledge to restore the party to its primacy in national affairs, the Congress decided that coalitions would be considered "only when absolutely necessary, and that too on the basis of agreed programmes which will not weaken the party or compromise its basic ideology."

Four years later, at its 81st Bangalore Plenary, the AICC "clarified" its position. It declared its preparedness to enter into "appropriate electoral or coalition arrangements with secular parties on the basis of mutual understanding but always without compromising its basic ideology". The priority was to forestall the BJP from pushing forward its "communal agenda".

At last year's Shimla Vichar Manthan, Ms. Gandhi said that the "prevailing situation in the country makes it incumbent on all secular forces to intensify their efforts to evolve a strategy for combating fundamentalism and for ensuring the defeat of the BJP and it allies".

The party that described the NDA as an "opportunistic alliance" now has the arduous task of piecing together an alternative that does not look similarly opportunistic and self-seeking.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News Update

Stories in this Section

The big, the small and the not-so-small

The see-saw battle

A long way from Pachmarhi

The game is open... till the very end