No Belchi moment for Sonia

Manmohan Singh’s tryst with black gold in Talabira may turn out to be the badly needed Belchi moment for his Congress party, which is in a state of despair, with the Crown Prince appearing to give credence to the growing perception that “he is an empty suit.”

Sonia Gandhi’s dramatic gesture in support of the beleaguered economist-turned-politician – her march to Singh’s residence at the head of a procession of party heavyweights, and her byte to the TV cameras are un-Sonia-like. These are a clear giveaway to the plans of 10, Janpath.

Naturally, therefore, tongues have started wagging in political circles amidst talk that the Congress leaders would be only too happy to see the former Prime Minister spend a couple of days in the Tihar Jail and thus gift them with enough ammunition to fire on all cylinders at the “vindictive” Modi sarkar.

Well, street politics is an unfamiliar terrain to the Congressmen of today. Even those who had cut their teeth in the Sanjay School have not revisited their aakhara for decades, and have become comfortable in the sinecures of Lutyens' Delhi. If there are any lingering doubts, these have been set at rest by Thursday’s “rail roko” staged by the UP Congress. The demonstrations against the Modi Land Acquisition Law have also been a flap-show. And did not stir people out of their slumber particularly at Bhatta-Parsaul (twin villages adjoining Delhi in Western Uttar Pradesh) that were at the centre of Rahul Gandhi’s agitation for farmers’ rights four years ago.

This is surprising because Rahul had charmed the locals by sneaking into Bhatta on a bike in the early morning of July 5, 2011, and he gave a slip to the police whom the then Mayawati government had marshaled in strength to deny the Congress a talking point.

The Congress president–in-waiting undertook a day–long “padyatra” in Bhatta-Parsaul and adjoining villages in what was billed as direct interaction with the people at the grassroots. Turn of events offered good food for thought to independent social scientists – a breed who are in danger of becoming an intellectual minority in India that is Bharat. There is no denying that India has come a long way from the rainy day in 1977 when Indira Gandhi rode on an elephant to the Belchi village (Patna district in Bihar) to meet the victims of atrocities on Dalits. The Belchi killing was one of the ten thousand or more episodes of caste violence reported in the first year of Janata rule. As noted historian Ramachandra Guha writes in highly acclaimed ‘India –After Gandhi,’ (Macmillan, 2007) the ride “refurbished” Indira Gandhi's image “as a friend of the poor and lowly” and helped “damn the Morarji Desai Government as being indifferent to the fate of the poor and the Dalits”.

It can be nobody’s case that Modi government is cut in the Janata mode even after the “Ghar Wapsi” campaign of the hot-heads in the Sangh Parivar. Its honeymoon period is coming to a close, no doubt, and the promised “Ache Din” have not materialized as yet, but the opposition has not been able to dent its image.

Well, Rajnath Singh, the Thakur from Uttar Pradesh can do one–up on fellow UPite Charan Singh, and can make a mess of things like he almost did in L’affarie Masarat Alam with his loud mouth. The two Singhs belong to two different worlds, though.

The Home Minister to Prime Minister Desai had his own goal posts and his order on October 3, 1977, to the CBI to arrest Indira Gandhi was a suo-moto decision. The Janata party paid the price for his shenanigans. His present day successor at North Block is no novice in the theatre of the absurd. And has his own dreams of unfurling tri-colour from the Red Fort one day. But the difference between 1977 and 2015 is that the shadow of the South Block, which, for the risk averse politicians, has come to appear as the proverbial hood of “Aadi Seshu”.

In his days, PV was one such politician, as he himself confessed to me and a couple of other journalists during Rajiv Gandhi days. “We are safe as long as we are under the hood,” he remarked comparing the high command to the hood of a snake. He never expected the Congress to ignore him, but it did; he never expected Congress leaders to actively work against him in the Lakhubhai Pathak and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery cases, but this was what many of them did.

There is not much on record to show that Sonia Gandhi sympathised with his plight, and consoled him. There is much in public domain, however, to show that Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister had remained a mute spectator when PV was denied his final resting place in Hastinapura. It was final humiliation for a man, who, though known as a Chankya, didn’t indulge in vengeance, when the going was good, and allowed Ottavio Quatrocchi to leave the country.

Like it happened in the case of PV, in the case of Manmohan Singh, the charges of corruption may not stand judicial scrutiny in the end. He will have to suffer much indignity in the short run. Harping on his integrity in the mean time offers neither solace to him or a rallying point to the Congress – all because he had presented himself as a helpless by-stander during scam-ridden UPA-II, and did little to avert economic paralysis till almost it was late.

Will history be kind to him? It is possible that he may be robbed of his title as the father of economic reforms, if PV’s role is reappraised and he is given credit for ending the permit-quota raj. This reality check should make the Congress men and women resist the temptation to chase mirages. What they should do instead is turn their gaze inwards to find ways and means to overcome the hurdle race in front of them.

By: Malladi Rama Rao