Congress still in a turmoil By Nisser Dias nisserdias at gmail.com SMS to 9422437029
Last week Indian National Congress party members (INC) were in a celebrative mood as Sonia Gandhi was unanimously elected president of the India’s oldest political party for the fourth consecutive term. Yes, the Congressmen and women have a reason to rejoice because before the entry of ‘Madam’ into active politics that is to say before she took the reigns of the party, congressmen were in a state of turmoil.
After the assassination of late Rajiv Gandhi, Congressmen were in the state of wilderness and were also radar-less without a leader to guide them. Senior Congressmen who were elected to lead the party proved incompetent of the position due to which indiscipline set-in and the party started disintegrating. It was during this era that the country saw the emergence of communal politics or rather politics of hatred introduced by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But before the BJP could come to power many non congress or coalition governments governed the country causing instability.
It was at this point that Sonia Gandhi stepped in to re-organize and lead the party; however she had to start at the scratch to learn the political ropes, learn the mind of Congressman, learn to speak in public and all in all learn to take decisions which I would say she is still slow at. But then I would not blame her as she was not cut out for politics though being the daughter-in-law and wife of two prime ministers of India late Indira Gandhi and late Rajiv Gandhi respectively. One must give her the due credit of getting over the death of her husband, bringing up her children single handedly and after making an entry into politics reorganizing the Congress party and capturing power at the centre for two consecutive terms even after being under tremendous pressures from the BJP and the Left who would not let an opportunity pass to taunt her about her Italian bloodline. Standing up and facing the odds she proved and endorsed her leadership capabilities.
She made the right chose in appointing highly educated financial wizard Dr. Manmohan Singh to lead the country as its prime minister. In the last two terms very progressive bills like the Right to Information, Women Reservation, Food Security bill, Right to Education, Rural employment guarantee scheme were passed and enacted as laws. So also the government under the chairmanship of Sonia Gandhi saw through the passage of Indo-US Nuclear treaty in the parliament.
Her government did all this but there are other aspects that her government has utterly failed and the most important thing the government has failed is to alleviate the hardships of the poor and downtrodden. Millions of countrymen continue to live in abject poverty while millions and millions of tonnes of food grains are rotting in granaries of our country. The government has not only failed to upgrade health facilities in government hospitals but has also failed to provide basic health facilities to the masses of India. The inventory can be endless, it is because the nemesis lie in the quality of politicians be it the MP or MLA or MLC.
When Sonia Gandhi took over the reigns of the Congress party, the aam admi, the loyal congress voter’s aspiration and expectation had sky rocketed. They looked up to her because of Nehru-Gandhi legacy to provide clean and transparent governance, an administration that would be free from corruption, Congress MPs and MLAs who would be role models in the society, who would be above the begging bowl and who had courage of their convictions to go beyond inaugurating sulabhs or community halls or who would consider legislating more important then laying foundation stones but the hopes of the masses remain shattered today.
Be it at the centre or at the state level majority of Congress ministers, MPs and MLAs are involved in various forms of corruption and crimes. Sonia Gandhi has not been able to cull this breed of congressmen who are just using the party for their personal gain to amass wealth and yield power.
Since the last three terms of her president of the Congress, she has presided over allotment of party tickets to candidates to contest elections be it at the parliament or assembly level. Ironically many of the congress candidates have criminal records, but she has overlooked this aspect and allowed them to contest on Congress party ticket merely because of winnability. In Goa we see that party tickets are being allotted to the same old candidates term after term. Sonia Gandhi has not encouraged its youth wing members or new faces to enter the political fray by allotting tickets to them.
Again since Sonia Gandhi has been the party president for the last three terms there have been corruption cases filed against many Congress union ministers. For example former External Affairs minister Natwar Singh was allegedly involved in Oil for Food scam and he had to resign. Then we have Minister for state for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor was involved in the Indian Premier League scandal. Suresh Kalmadi is now alleged to be embroiled in financial irregularities for the Common Wealth Games. Senior congressmen N D Tiwari had to demit the office of Governor of Andhra Pradesh after his alleged involvement in a sex scandal.
Now let’s take a closer look at the performance of congress ministers in Goa. In the recently concluded assembly elections the opposition benches made direct allegations against various ministers including the chief minister of being involved in scams. Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar went a step ahead and is on record saying he will provide prove to substantiate his charges. All this reaches the ears of the High Command through party observers and intra party rivals but nothing is being done to bring such members to book. Loot and plunder of the state continues. Party tickets to contest elections are being allotted to turncoats and traitors and Sonia Gandhi continues to be the president of the Congress party
Congress party infact has degraded under Sonia Gandhi. There is no discipline among Congress representatives, there is no true congressman but party tickets are being allotted to turncoats and traitors. There is Food Security Bill in place but no food for the poor, Right to Education Act has been enacted but it is yet to become operational the list can go and on. So what is there to cheer about of Sonia Gandhi being elected as Congress party president for the fourth successive time? (ENDS)
========================================================== First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - September 9, 2010
