CONGRESS SHOULD NOT FORGET THE PEOPLE'S VERDICT ON BOFORS

The Indian National Congress may be 125 years old. But in terms of mental development, character, integrity and personality of its leaders which reached its finest form in the mid 20th century has degenerated to that of a 10-year old spoilt child today with a penchant for pointing fingers at others whenever it is found at fault rather than doing any introspection. The deliberations of the one-day session of the Congress party held recently in Delhi, which formalised the return of its President for the fourth term, is a beautiful example for this mindset.

That the party lost its moral right to talk about democracy or rule of law after the imposition of Emergency in 1975 is well known. But what the present dispensation has done is that it tried to dig deep into such a shaky foundation to ensure that inner-party democracy is buried and to morph the party into a disguised mafia gang which is looting the nation. What is the disguise over this gang? It is “aam admi”, “secularism”, “rule of law” etc. Otherwise, how do you explain that just one person nominates herself for the fourth term as the President of the party? It happens only in dictatorial regimes. Is there none in the party who can fit the bill? Nor the party has any capacity to elect members of the Congress Working Committee, which is at least notionally the highest decision making body?

The party has closed its eyes to the stinking corruption, price rise, terrorism and threats to internal and external security, as if they do not exist. What appears as reality to the party- with- blinkers is the threat of RSS with its “terror links” and its “communalism”. Perhaps, Sigmund Freud might be able to explain this psychological problem of the party. All the problems are with others, but not with itself.

The party has the audacity to say that Bofors scam has been cleared by every court in the country and in fact, the party wants to believe that it never existed in the first place. If at all, it only goes to prove that rule of law need not always triumph and it can be twisted out of shape by a government which is hell-bent on turning it on its head. But, there is a consolation for the present generation. The amount involved in Bofors was a pittance when compared with the corrupt deals of the day which will be thousand times more than that of Bofors. But what the Congress party cannot afford to forget is that those who were charged with Bofors bribe might have got away from the rule of law, but the party and its leader were given a drubbing by the people when they defeated Rajiv Gandhi at the hustings.

Whenever any wrong doing on the part of the party government is pointed out, the standard reply to brazen out such charges leaves no one to hazard a guess. “We have ordered enquiry”, “Look at the BJP’s track record” “Those who are found guilty will not be spared” “Law will take its own course”. These are the excuses.

Yes, in the case of Telecom Minister A Raja who inflicted a loss of more than one lakh crore on the nation, a CBI enquiry was ordered, no doubt. What did this puppet agency do for one year? Nothing. It registered an FIR against unnamed persons, though it had the benefit of CAG report pointing out the persons involved in the unimaginable loot of the nation. Even the apex court of the country was appalled at the dubious role played by the investigating agency at the instance of the people in power who were more interested in retaining power rather than ensuring probity in public life.

Former CVC Shanglu enquiry into the Commonwealth Games will produce a report for the record and to enable the government to deflect criticism that it has done nothing. What prevented the leadership to suspend him from the party for shaming the nation at the international level. The so-called enquiry will only help the Treasury benches in Parliament to blunt the criticism of the Opposition stating that “we ordered an enquiry, wait for its report”. For the next Parliament session, yet another scandal will break out and the CWG will be forgotten. In the meantime, you can talk about RSS terror links, Ayodhya demolition, threat of communalism to the integrity of the nation, etc.

Further, how did we deal with the people who were found to be inadequate for the job? Take the case of Vilassrao Deshmukh. His casual approach to 26/11 incurred the wrath of the nation. Was he made accountable? Yes, by shifting him to the Union government! He is in the dock today. H R Bharadwaj, permanent retainer of 10 Janpath was rejected by the people of his constituency in UP. What did we do to him. We made him the governor of Karnataka. True to his DNA, he wanted to pay his obeisance to his boss. The only way to do it, in his reckoning, is to ensure a non-BJP government in Karnataka. Unsuccessfully he engineered a crisis for the BJP government and as nemesis would have it, a Congress government in the neighbouring state was thrown into turmoil. The infamous home minister of the UPA, Shivraj Patil, was rejected by the people and he was made the Union Home Minister as if to care a damn for the people’s verdict. Where is he today is not the question, but what did he do to the nation with his gross incompetence.

Now, it is the turn of Ashok Chavan. Enquiries are ordered and we know what would be the outcome. It will only serve the party as a tool of deflection when it faces the heat in Parliament. In due course of time, he will also be given a cosy chair.

What the Congress party should remember is this. It may divert, deflect, and point finger at its political rivals in its attempt to put on a brave face. Ultimately, people will teach the party a bitter lesson when they get the chance. They have done it before for Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and the BJP.