Blame game in Congress begins, no Left shoulder to cry on

This evening, however, the first knives were being brought out in the Congress.

And the Left wasn’t lending its shoulder to the Congress to cry on — instead, it talked of the Congress’s “need to introspect,” its failure to counter communalism and even rubbed it in underlining its opposition to the nuclear deal and “right-wing economics.”

No wonder then that the Congress response today — both at the Centre and in the state — was one of silence.

Spokespersons who trotted to TV studios took the easy way out: Modi (read a divided Gujarat) was the only reason why the party lost.

But as party president Sonia Gandhi is set to call a meeting of her top leaders tomorrow, the blame game has begun. General Secretary Digvijay Singh blamed the “local leadership,” seen as a not-so veiled swipe at Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress president.

However, few Congress leaders were vocal today aware that it was Sonia who dominated the election campaign. So although Union Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela admitted that “excessive reaction” to her “merchant-of-death remark” could have helped the BJP, others stood by that line.

In meeting after meeting with rebel BJP leaders, local Congress leaders had insisted and agreed that the 2002 riots will be kept out of the campaign agenda. They did not want to commit the “mistakes” of the last Assembly election. But somewhere along the way, the plot changed.

Local leaders said that caste and community equations they had so diligently worked on evaporated as the campaign unfolded. The focus on tribal and farmers’ issues remained but Sonia Gandhi’s “merchants of death” and Digvijay Singh’s “Hindu terrorism” remarks overshadowed everything else. Then came Manmohan Singh’s reference to the post-Godhra riots saying if there were valid grievances, the Congress, if it came to power, would look into it. This promptly played out as the Congress’s “threat” to re-open riot cases. As Modi told The Indian Express during the campaign: “They gave a weapon in my hands.” By daring the PM to “arrest me tomorrow if he wishes,” Modi struck a chord and revived the 2002 emotions, say local leaders.

At the deserted AICC headquarters this morning, early trends indicated a flicker of hope — an exultant PCC chief Bharatsinh Solanki, encouraged by a TV anchor, even began thanking Ahmed Patel and Shankersinh Vaghela for their support towards a triumph — but within an hour, it was a shaken General Secretary in charge of Gujarat B K Hari Prasad walking into the party headquarters.

“Madam Gandhi and Rahulji attracted lakhs of people in their public meetings. It was our fault that we could not convert them into votes,” Prasad said, owning “all responsibility” for the defeat.

He denied the BJP’s claims that its victory was a mandate for development. “Right from the beginning, Modi played the communal card. What do you think he was doing when he raked up the Sethusamudram project?” he said.

Prasad conceded that the margin of Modi’s victory was “unexpected”. And that its dalliance with BJP rebels did not pay off. The party’s performance in Saurashtra, where it hoped to reap a rich harvest, was way below its expectation. “Saurashtra was our Waterloo,” said Prasad.

Pressure is expected to mount on Patel — his detractors point out that he was the strategist-in-chief of the Gujarat campaign and should own up for the rout.

Unfair, say Patel’s supporters, claiming he kept the party united and worked closely with the party president to put up a “valiant fight” against Modi.

So what will be the verdict’s effect on the Centre? For the record, party leaders said there was no question of going back on the nuclear deal but they admitted that this wasn’t the time to dare the Left.

“The Left will withdraw support at some point of time, we know,” said a senior Congress leader. “But let’s see what happens in the immediate future. We cannot say anything about the nuclear deal as of now.”

The BJP twisted the knife with a beaming spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad saying that “Prakash Karat may become a good boy now” and their “hatred for the BJP is reinforced.”

The Left itself remained undeterred, saying the defeat showed that the Congress needed to rethink its ties with the US and economic policies. And that electoral efforts alone are insufficient to defeat communal forces.

After putting both “imperialism” and “communalism” on an equal footing, the Left now calculates that the Congress will not do anything (read operationalisation of deal) that warrants a general election before the UPA government’s term ends.

“Both communalism and imperialism are equal dangers, and need to be fought equally. The one you do not fight (imperialism) becomes a greater threat. So there is no question of imperialism becoming a lesser danger,” CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury told The Indian Express.

The CPM Politburo said: “What is required is a determined and uncompromising struggle against the communal ideology of Hindutva and the capacity to launch sustained struggles of all sections of the people who suffered from the right-wing economic policies of the Modi government.”

“The Congress should realise that secularism alone is not enough and it should do some serious introspection over its policies, particularly on the economic front. It should also rethink on the Indo-US nuclear deal and carry out a mid-course correction of its policies,” CPI national secretary D Raja said.