Dummies at play

Ramchandra Guha laments the ‘absence of vigorous, credible, state-level leaders’ at the Congress party:

"Things were once otherwise. In Jawaharlal Nehru’s time, the Congress had strong, capable, and focused CMs — among them S Nijalingappa in Karnataka (then known as Mysore), K Kamaraj in Tamil Nadu (then Madras), BC Roy in West Bengal, and YB Chavan in Maharashtra. They successfully won elections and ran governments.

Now, in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, there is no one, identifiable, Congress leader. Five or six senior men jostle for position, their precedence varying from month to month depending on the winks and nods of the high command. In other states the situation is even more dire."

It is one of the ever-lasting ironies of Indian politics that the Congress party, run in an autocratic and presidential manner at the center, prevents strong leaders at the state level. This was one of Indira Gandhi’s Big Ideas: to plant mediocre dummies at the state level. The idea was a runaway success. The senior  Mrs. Gandhi started her career pitted against formidable leaders at the union and the state level. At her demise, no one in the party dared oppose her or her son.

Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s Big Idea has been to copy her mother-in-law and at the center as well: not even Dr. Singh’s greatest admirers can charge him of being strong-willed (except during the passage of the Nuclear deal) . Aso, Mrs. Gandhi seems intent packing the union government with ordinary, pedestrian journeymen like Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, CP Joshi and MS Gill. Mr. Guha’s comment thus applies at the center as well.

PS: Prem Shankar Jha argues that we must judge Dr. Singh ‘not by what he has been saying but by what he has done’. Unfortunately he builds his case by citing token actions, like the arrest of A Raja, and a questioning of the junior Ambani. With the Supreme Court’s action yesterday striking down the appointment of the CVC, the PM’s position has further weakened. Tokenism won’t help here.

(Ramchandra Guha article link via Churmuri).