There is something terribly wrong with the Congress party and the Congress party does not seem to know it. The political resolution at the end of an extended CWC brainstorming — the first such exercise after the party’s mauling by Modi’s BJP in Gujarat — shows a party still lacking in the imagination or courage or both to think afresh. There are the same old platitudes on secularism and a familiar mincing on alliance-making. The drubbing in Gujarat has not roused Sonia’s party from its torpor long enough to seriously ask itself: what went so awry in Gujarat? With the leadership avoiding that question by the simple expedient of lobbing it into the unexceptionable court of senior leader Manmohan Singh — the final word on Gujarat, we are told, shall come from him — the party goes on as before after Gujarat. No admissions made, no lessons learnt.‘For the Congress, secularism is the battle to rescue India’s religious traditions, teachings, and practices from the forces of bigotry and hate.’ Of course. But how, pray, does the Congress propose to fight? With what tools and weapons? What will be the ideological underpinning, what political tactics will it deploy, in the fight to defeat the BJP’s ‘diabolical design’? Dare we even hope for a strategy? Because in Gujarat, there was none. Unless soft Hindutva could be given that name. In Gujarat, a genuine alternative to the BJP was conspicuous by its abdication. Remember the elevation of old RSS hand Shankarsinh Vaghela to helm the Congress’s challenge? Or the sadhus crowding the dais? The discrepancies in the two manifestos released by the party in English and Gujarati, or its loud silence on the riots after Godhra?If there is no evidence of a rethink on how to tackle Hindutva, or should that be Moditva now, an old ambiguity is recycled on coalitions. The party, says its spokesperson, is ‘open’ to alliances with ‘like-minded’ parties and would not like the ‘secular vote’ to be split. Haven’t we heard that before? Even if that declaration marks a step towards a new mellowness on the issue of tie-ups, as some insist it does, it is too little, too late. The truth is, the Congress today is basically a party that reacts to what the BJP does. It’s been a long time since the Congress wrested the political initiative. Going by the CWC resolution, it will be a long time before it will.
