Polls and pressures

A contrarian view of the latest goings-on in the Congress party appears to be in order if only because it might be a little more illuminating than the standard version. Conventional wisdom has it that Begum Noor Bano has been put in her place for daring to challenge the party high command for which read, Sonia Gandhi. And so it seems. In fact, even in losing the lady from UP may have struck a blow for democracy and the party high command has certainly lost the chance to burnish its image. Noor Bano was seen as a `rebel’ candidate for one of the posts of secretary in the Congress Parliamentary Party. As such she is not unusual. The Congress can be said to have invented the rebel candidate; it is the way the party copes with too much centralised control and diktat from the top and too little inner-party democracy. Anyone who has observed the phenomenon closely would have noticed rebels tend to thrive in particular circumstances. The species is especially thick on the ground when the high command is rigid andunyielding, fails to accommodate local concerns and is bent on controlling all outcomes.

Such a picture does not always fit the Congress high command today. If anything it has had to learn to bend over backwards to accommodate state-level interests (as in West Bengal) just to hold the party together. In UP, however, the bad old ways persist. Although Noor Bano’s candidature would have been worth backing, among other things because the Congress needs to have more women and more members of minorities in powerful positions, such positive factors were outweighed by her alleged closeness to the Jitendra Prasad faction. It would be a great pity if the independence she seems to display also went against her for the Congress has far too few such people and will become a force to reckon with when more of its members start thinking for themselves. In the end the fact that Noor Bano contested even though the high command disapproved and she received 76 votes, only 8 short of the winning candidate, Sona Ram Choudhary’s total, are evidence in a curious kind of way that democracy is alive and well within theCongress.

The same message is reinforced by a `rebel’ who fought and won, Kapil Sibal. Suresh Kalmadi may have been the high command favourite but a large number of MPs obviously have more confidence in Sibal. Party high commands are bound to have preferences when contests are held for key party posts. It would be quite unnatural, indeed very worrying if the leadership were utterly indifferent to the outcome. All leaders try and perpetuate themselves and are prone to elevating those who will not rock the boat. It is important that even if preferences are not hidden the contest be free and fair and so-called rebels are not penalised for daring to stand against the president’s wishes. The suggestion that state leaderships were leant on to ensure MPs toed the Congress high command’s line does not speak well of the Congress. But it is a sign of improving health that pressure tactics do not work in every case. Now for other pending party elections.