Confused Crowd

I think, said Descartes, therefore I am. By this token, it is clear why the Congress is, so to speak, not. Thought and strategy have been replaced by confusion, so that an integrated course of political, social and economic action is missing, and in its place there are just machinations, intrigue and tactical moves designed primarily to score points in internecine battles. One result is what the country was treated to on Tuesday: the extraordinary spectacle of Sonia Gandhi criticising the cut in subsidies even as Manmohan Singh was underlining the need for realism, a euphemism in political circles for doing exactly what the BJP has done -- reduce subsidies.

 

Leadership too is an issue. Vasant Sathe's views on Sonia Gandhi's steering of the party will be widely shared; coming in the wake of Jairam Ramesh's now denied remarks, there can be little doubt that many party faithful feel they are in a rudderless boat. Sonia Gandhi seems to think that the answer to these doubts and to the BJP's economic policy thrust lies in the Congress recovering its pro-poor image. This image was built up assiduously from about 1938, when the socialist stream led by Jawaharlal Nehru captured the organisation, and was given a further burnishing by Indira Gandhi. But it took a sharp knock from the mid-1980s, first because of Rajiv Gandhi's upper crust image and then during 1991-93, partly as a result of the steep increase in food prices in that period. Indeed, so severe was the reaction from within the party that economic reform stopped dead in its tracks in 1993. Doubtless recalling its own experience with food prices, the Congress now seems to want to turn the tables. Whence the protest by Sonia Gandhi.

It could be argued, as many have done, that if the poor have not seen the benefits of reform, it is because they have not gone far enough and deep enough. Had Messrs Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh pressed on down the path they had started on in 1991, the story may well have been different. However, this will be one of those ifs-and-buts of history to which there can never be a satisfactory resolution.

A more fruitful line to pursue, however, is to ask if the Congress is not barking up the wrong tree in focusing on blocking reform to restore its pro-poor image. Instead, it might be far better for it to support reform and focus on governance issues. If Sonia Gandhi is really concerned (as she seems to be) about the prospect of growing inequality, and lack of change and hope in the poor parts of north and east India, surely the issue is better governance rather than less reform. If there is one thing on which there is now a complete consensus -- outside of the political establishment, naturally -- it is on the near-total breakdown of governance virtually all over the country. There is a disconnect between the rulers and the ruled which, alarmingly, runs a close second to the last such disconnect -- during the final years of the Mughal empire. But this is a problem that goes far beyond the Congress party's immediate worries.