The Enemy Within
Even as the Congress flexes its muscles, a deep malaise threatens to paralyse it into a coma. The cosmetic show of strength cannot cover it up, as the blisters are all buried within. Mrs Gandhi’s leviathan, which claims to reach a membership of 10 million this year, is convulsed with intra-party feuds, internal jealousies and competition for power.
For the time being, it looks certain that the turmoil in the Congress(I) will not end soon, however much Mrs Gandhi may crack the whip. Maybe the turmoil will, in its process, churn up alternative leadership. But its contour is not visible now.
The confrontation within the party’s ranks tends to follow a regular pattern. On one side of the battleline are ranged the assorted ministerialists, including chief ministers, PCC(I) chiefs and their henchmen. On the other side of the barricade, there are arrays of men whose claims were passed over earlier, who could not be accommodated in the bandwagons of power, and who had fallen from grace when Sanjay was alive. As a rule, the latter get patronage of Central ministers from respective states.
This pattern repeats itself with sickening regularity in state after state. It is no longer a straight contest between the old and the new, between the flashy, youthful Sanjay-loyalists and the cautious old-timers defending their ancien regime. The confrontation today is far more complex, involving personae like Kamlapati Tripathi, Vidya Charan Shukla, Mohanlal Sukhadia, Kedar Pandey, Channa Reddy—people who have spent long years in politics and have bases under their feet. These are the real dissidents of today, the “old Turks” of the Congress(I).
Though conforming to a set pattern, the inner tussle of the Congess(I) has statewise variations. It is subdued in Maharashtra, but pronounced in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh, it has deep caste overtones. In Bihar, it is a naked fight for the spoils of office. In Rajasthan, the confrontation is between political neophytes on one hand and veterans on the other. However, the lowest common denominator in all the states is the fast-eroding authority of the chief minister and strident re-assertion of rights by traditional forces which had been side-stepped in Sanjay’s time.
INDIATODAY, FEBRUARY28,1981