There is no one, but no one, within the Congress and outside of it, who does not understand why the party high command does not empower its many leaders rather than emasculate them by forcing them to connive and surreptitiously fight each other, hoping to be anointed one day! When members of the party are asked why they do not argue and debate these issues in internal party fora, they reply thus — no one hears us, no one listens. The truth, however, is slightly different. There is much animated and intelligent talk outside but the moment they enter the hallowed portals, the wolves become tongue-tied mice, standing silently, even if seething within. The refrain is the same — we will be finished off if we speak out of turn. And so they remain dummies, compromising their personal integrity to remain accepted in the party.

It is these members of the party who are responsible for the intellectual lethargy and the subservient manner that have pervaded the Congress. It is a classic chicken and egg situation. They fall in line in the presence of the high command and speak out in the presence of those who can do nothing for themselves or the party, and yet they allow themselves to be undermined as long as they can stay in the party! Quite frankly, if senior party persons do not have the confidence to speak out and work collectively to reinvent and rejuvenate the machine, if they are incapable of contradicting and confronting issues with the top leadership, if they remain mute in the presence of the leaders, they have no right to blame the high command for being arrogant, non-heeding and gently dismissive. On what grounds can anyone take such people seriously?

Missed opportunity

I was truly surprised and a trifled shocked when no Congress leader with national acceptability caught a flight to Mumbai to address a public meeting to reassure the people of Maharashtra that the Congress would work relentlessly to ensure that all citizens, regardless of caste, creed or class, will be treated with dignity and protected equally within the law of the federal democracy called India, even as Raj Thackeray did what he did. What stopped the prime minister, Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi from addressing the nation on television? It would have triggered the start of a worthwhile campaign to restore some of the tenets of our Constitution that have become diluted.

But alas, when you say so to the Congress people, the retort always is that none of us understands the complicated politics of polarization, and therefore, why take a position, better to let the horrors float on, pretending that they do not exist!

Scary shades of what Bhindranwale did to Punjab and to the rest of India. I remember, all too clearly, how he sat atop a truck brandishing a weapon, went past the India Gate in Delhi, and was arrested and released immediately thereafter. He made his position clear, oozed self-confidence, and did not care for the Constitution and the law of the land. We do not know what may have transpired behind closed doors, but the tragedy, turmoil and trials that innocent families went through for years because of that faulty political judgement, because of puerile excuses of not­wanting-to-polarize-Punjab (and now, Maharashtra) remain unforgettable. Is the ominous, loud silence of the Congress Party, in a state they rule, leading us into another future horror? Déjà vu.

Why this apparent drift? Why this lack of interest to grab a challenge? Why no will to win? Why do we have to listen to the refrain — next time will be our turn? Well, there will be no next time, that is anything like the times gone by! Why has the Congress abdicated the liberal, plural space? Does it have the commitment to fight and get it back?