Congress in disarray. Rahul damaged. Sonia returns to fix mess

Sonia Gandhi's dilemmas


The president of the Congress Party had to be rushed to New York for emergency cancer surgery. Sonia Gandhi's absence during the Hazare public protest and nation-wide outrage, led to confusion and back-tracking by the government.


She is back now and supposed to be recuperating. But she has to restore order within Congress and the government. Both retreated in public humiliation after bungling the Hazare protest.


The iron lady has to deal with the following challenges: How to fashion a Lokpal Bill which will have sufficient teeth to chill elected crooks but not allow mob justice? What happens if it results in full scale investigations of Congress politicians? What if Hazare resumes his public fast as he has threatened to do, if his version of the Lokpal Bill is not passed into law? 


Can she still steer Rahul to the prime ministership? He has lost stature after failing to connect with the agitated youth who came out in force to support Anna Hazare. Who else is there with credibility to lead Congress and the government? What about the next election? Is Congress not guaranteed to be turfed out already? After Sonia who?


All too much for one just recovering from cancer surgery.



Government in retreat


Both the Indian government and its Congress Party leadership failed to read the deep public resentment against the corrupt political class. They arrested the 74 year old Anna Hazare and his small band of followers. That catapulted him into the national consciousness and fanned public outrage. 


Then the country's shrill TV stations turned him into a celebrity with 24-hour coverage and panel punditry. Then twitterati and facebook activists spread viral messages of a corrupt power structure victimizing an old man who dared to protest. 


Then the government spin masters falsely accused Hazare and his team of tax evasion, corrupt land deals and more. He challenged them to charge him.


That jolted the urban middle class, NGOs, youth and the unemployed to join the rising public outcry. They found ready targets in the morally bankrupt Congress-led government beset with massive unresolved scandals. 


The police were instructed to release him with conditions attached. Hazare ignored all the conditions and started a public fast at the Ramlila Maidan in the national capital.


Hazare campaign professionally media-managed


Hazare's campaign managers were seasoned media minds and legal experts. They turned him into the second coming of Mahatma Gandhi. Hazare launched a 'second revolution' to rid the nation of what he called the new oppressors of the people. 


The blow-up poster of Gandhi dominated the raised dais on which the frail Hazare undertook his fast. The revered Mahatma and Hazare were linked in TV images beamed to the nation. 


T-shirts, Gandhi caps, dancing performances, Bollywood stars and pop-songs entertained the crowds. It turned into a national carnival with peaceful mass protests in several cities across the country.


The Anna Hazare team lobbied for the 'Jan Lokpal' Bill to replace the 'toothless' government version. 


Prime minister Manmohan Singh capitulated with the full support of the Opposition benches, on the 12th day of Hazare's fast, fearing his death on stage would unleash mob rampage against Parliament and all its representatives. Manmohan Singh agreed in principle to accept all his demands. 


The government bought time by passing his Bill to the house standing committee to vet along with other submissions. Now Sonia Gandhi has to craft a formula to reconcile the extreme positions on the Lokpal Bill.


'Jan Lokpal' challenges Congress, Govt. & Opposition


Hazare's Citizens' Ombudsman Bill (Jan Lokpal) seeks to set up an independent bureaucracy to vet public complaints against state legislators and members of parliament, police, judges, ministers and prime minister. No one is exempt. Fast justice is to be meted out. The guilty would be imprisoned and their assets seized.


There is no separation of powers between investigation, prosecution and sentencing. The administration of the Jan Lokpal as Hazare envisages it, is a law unto itself. It answers to no one. There are no external checks and balances. There is no independent appeal process. Who will guard the guards is unanswered.


The mischief of the political class aside, there is every danger of this supra-government, moralistic crusade degenerating quickly into vendettas, revenge, false accusations and witch hunts on a national scale. Revolutions and jihads throughout history have shown how power unchecked turns into mass abuse.


The Congress Party finds itself on the wrong side of the debate. It has projected itself as willing to use heavy boots to stop the people's call for clean government. It has been forced into the losing position of seeming to protect privilege and corrupt practices. Perception is everything in politics. Congress is unlikely to be voted back into office.


Rahul Gandhi stumbles


In the leadership vacuum left by Sonia Gandhi's emergency cancer surgery in New York, Rahul Gandhi was presented with a golden opportunity to rise to the occasion. He failed to seize the moment. 


Worse, he recited a wooden, flat script in Parliament warning the movement against usurping the role of elected lawmakers. Instead of co-opting the national anger against corruption and the intransigence of the 'old politics', he aligned himself with the Old Guard. He became part of the problem. 


The educated youth who form a growing demographic voting block in India, cannot any longer look to Rahul Gandhi for inspiration. He failed them at the most crucial moment. The youth turned to leadership of a 74-year anti-corruption crusader.





ENDS