Congress mukt Bharat -- A debate

UDAY BASU
uday@thestateman.net
Kolkata, 16 September

It was certainly a coincidence that when distinguished panelists for the discussion that followed The Statesman Awards for Rural Reporting 2013 and The Cushrow Irani Prize for Environmental Reporting were today debating the motion ~ "for India's sake, the Congress must survive" ~ the Congress did survive the BJP onslaught in the bypoll to 32 Assembly seats in nine states as the results during the day showed.

The Editor and Managing Director of The Statesman, Mr Ravindra Kumar, in his prefatory remarks explained the topic chosen shouldn't create any impression that the newspaper was taking up the Congress' cause, but the day's developments injected a new life into the debate.

So much so that Prof Omprakash Mishra, a panelist who is also a state Congress leader, asserted the Congress was still "alive and kicking very hard."

The debate generated a fair degree of consensus in favour of the motion with panelists ~ Prof Hari Vasudevan, Ms Kalyani Shankar, journalist and Mr Sidharth Bhatia, journalist  ~ agreeing that for the survival of democracy in the country the Congress needed to remain politically viable and relevant, though for that it has to reinvent itself and recast its agenda.

Mr MG Devasahayam, a former civil servant, vehemently opposed the motion because in his opinion the Congress had first "hijacked" the freedom movement to become a ruling party, then foisted dynastic rule in the country, destroyed democracy and in course of time forfeited the right to rule as is shown in its present strength in the Lok Sabha ~ 44 seats.
One reason, according to him, for the Congress' decline was its economic policies of reforms that were not geared to the benefit of the people, but "tailored to predatory politics."

Prof Vasudevan didn't find fault with the role of an individual's charisma in politics as it's practised in India or elsewhere, since it inspires hope of elevation among the people. It helps a party build its countrywide network as well. The political tragedy of India, according to him, is  that it has lost a dream for which the Congress is responsible asit turned its policies and programmes as a means to give doles to the people.

Mr Bhatia said the Congress must survive for the sake of a healthy democracy just as the BJP would have needed to survive had the Congress been a ruling party. It's not a question of whether one is sympathetic to the Congress or not, it's one of a functioning democracy that requires plurality of politics, he said.

Ms Shankar said Congress' survival is linked to the democratic system of checks and balance. Moreover, she insisted, the emergence of the Narendra Modi-led BJP was basically due to negative voting as the people had been sick of the scams perpetrated during the UPA-II-government. "But, if the Modi-government fails to deliver in the next five years, the Congress may find its feet again and it may bounce back," she said. Prof Mishra said the Congress might not be getting enough votes, "but the people love it", because its policies and programmes were intended to benefit the people at large. He was confident that his party would reshape itself according to the needs of time.

He also questioned Mr Modi's call for good governance given during electioneering. "Where's good governance ? It's a flip-flop government at the Centre now. Mr Modi is following key Congress policies which he and his party opposed when the Congress introduced them," Prof Mishra said.

Mr Krishnan Srinivasan, former foreign secretary, moderated the proceedings with consummate skill, provoking the panelists with his suave comments and occasional jibes.