Commentary/T V R Shenoy

For all their bombast and bluster, there really isn't any Congress leader with a spine stiffer than plasticine

Two Congressmen were seen in a cemetery, walking slowly from grave to grave writing down the names of the deceased. They paused over one weatherworn tombstone where the elements had made the name almost indecipherable.

"Come on," one finally said impatiently, "one name more or less doesn't make a difference."

"What do you mean?" his companion demanded indignantly, "This fellow has as much right as any of the others to vote in the Congress organisational elections!"

Of course, it didn't really happen. But if you think that is a whopper you ought to see some of the mud being flung around Congress offices across the country. Dead men, live children, even some who never existed outside their creators' imaginations -- all of them feature on the party rolls.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee jestingly referred to the Congress as the vaisyas of the modern caste system. But come election time and the party is miraculously transformed to brahmins, with every Congressman worth the name reciting the 'Rig' Veda!

Charges of rigging and bogus membership are flowing in from every state. In Punjab, the president of the local unit quit in frustration. In West Bengal, the redoubtable Mamta Bannerjee has announced she is boycotting the elections. In Delhi, Congress MLAs and corporators demonstrated against the Pradesh Congress Committee chief. And Jagannath Mishra is on the warpath in Bihar.

I could take you through every state and Union territory in the country, but why bother? The trend is clear -- what is happening in the Congress is simply a farce masquerading as elections.

The root of the matter is that Sitaram Kesri and his cronies simply didn't want polls at all. They would have been perfectly content to let Kesri's 'provisional' status continue forever.

The Congress 'High Command' found its hand forced by the Election Commission. Having bamboozled the President of India -- where is the promised coordination committee? -- Kesri was confident of taking other Constitutional authorities for a ride.

When the EC reminded him of the looming May 31 deadline, the Congress president waved it away. He arrogantly decided on his own that July 15 was time enough. (And when that date came around, Kesri would probably have opted for another postponement, and then yet another.)

But Nirvachan Sadan proved to be tougher than Rashtrapati Bhawan. The EC all but threatened to strip the Congress of its status as a national party and the possible loss of its symbol. At which point, the Congress promptly caved in, accepting June 15.

Unfortunately, the EC can do no more than insist on organisational polls being held. It can't conduct them too.

This allows Kesri considerable leeway as he struggles to consolidate his hold on the Congress. He has used his post to appoint his own men as the returning officers in every state. These nominees in turn carefully overlook the glaring irregularities.

The result, to quote Ghulam Nabi Azad, is ''total harmony at the local level." According to the Congress general secretary, up to 99 per cent of the block-level units have already reached a consensus on the names for block president, four district-level delegates, and one pradesh delegate.

Azad hasn't bothered to explain how the party managed this miracle. In the days of its glory, the Congress used to witness fierce battles in the organisational polls.

Subhas Chandra Bose defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya in the teeth of Mahatma Gandhi's opposition. Purushottamdas Tandon beat Nehru's candidate Acharya Narendra Dev in the fight for the presidency. And even in Indira Gandhi's authoritarian day, it was possible for Chandra Shekhar to be elected to the central election committee. (How many Congressmen remember the existence of such a body today?)

If neither Mahatma Gandhi nor Indira Gandhi could have it all their own way, is it really possible that Kesri can pull it off? Can he, in fact, impose a rigged 'consensus' (the Congress' favourite word) on the party?

Depressingly for the Congress, yes he can. For all their bombast and bluster, there really isn't any Congress leader with a spine stiffer than plasticine. They could probably overwhelm Kesri if they combine, but they distrust each other too much.

(Sonia Gandhi is probably the only one with the stature to challenge Kesri directly with any hope of victory. Is that why the 'provisional' president is so careful to slip in the fact she is only a 'primary' member -- automatically ineligible for office?)

'Trust' is the key word here. Kesri doesn't trust his own partymen to make the right decision. The party at large doesn't trust Kesri to provide the kind of leadership that will lead them back to power.

All of which leads up to just one question: if Congressmen don't trust each other enough to hold honest polls, how on earth do they expect the voters of India to trust them?

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