Manmohan Singh backs off on Article 370

Manmohan Singh backs off on Article 370

EditorialUpdated: Friday, October 18, 2019, 10:05 PM IST
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Manmohan Singh |

It is enigmatic that Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s first public rally after returning as Congress chief after the party’s Lok Sabha debacle has been called off and instead it is her son Rahul Gandhi who will address the election rally in Mahendragarh in Haryana which she was supposed to address. ‘Unavoidable reasons’ has been cited as the cause of Sonia’s cancellation and Rahul’s back door entry. Is this a sign that Sonia’s much-speculated ill health has further deteriorated or is it in preparation for Rahul to return to the party helm again? The mother-son duo has indeed left the country guessing on the future stewardship of the grand old party which is at the crossroads after the Lok Sabha debacle. The secrecy that surrounds Sonia Gandhi’s illness is unfair to the country’s vast electorate and must be ended. Sonia is no ordinary citizen. The country is entitled to know the truth about the Congress chief’s health and the real intent of the party in regard to Rahul who had earlier been anointed as her heir. The party has been sliding under Rahul and it is time an alternative leadership emerges that meets the expectations of the people.

With elections to the crucial states of Maharashtra and Haryana assemblies slated next week, the party is steeped in confusion, the morale of the cadres is low and there is no energy and heft in the party to combat the BJP’s onslaught. Despite there being no dearth of leaders in the Congress, there is characteristic gutlessness and surrender to the Sonia-Rahul bandwagon that is destroying the party from within. The simmering battle between the old guard and the young turks within the party is taking on sinister proportions. The party had taken an adversarial stand in regard to the Narendra Modi government’s much-touted abrogation of Article 370 but now, finding the ground slipping from under its feet, former prime minister Manmohan Singh has been drafted to say that the article which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir was a ‘temporary measure’ under the Constitution. This is indeed the first time a Congress leader of Singh’s stature has articulated such a view. While this may be deemed to be the first time a front-ranking Congress leader has articulated such a view, it reflects a shift from the party’s hardline position. Evidently, this reflects the party’s muddled thinking and it may well be a case of too little too late since the polls are round the corner.

Clearly, the Congress party is groping for a position on Kashmir as on many other issues and is failing to discharge its function as a credible Opposition at a time when the Modi government is showing signs of being overbearing. Even on the contentious question of awarding Bharat Ratna to Veer Savarkar, the Congress party has diluted its opposition to it and is looking compromised. The party is increasingly betraying lack of trust in what it believes in. Dr Manmohan Singh is a confidante of the Gandhis but there are not many in the party’s inner circle in whom Sonia and Rahul have trust. In the circumstances, the party’s volte-face on Kashmir and on Savarkar lacked well-considered focus. Within party circles, though there is a culture of silence when the issue concerns Sonia and/Rahul there is growing hiatus between the old guard and the new breed even in regard to the reported Sonia plan to re-install Rahul as party president.

The virtual grudging acceptance of the BJP stand on abrogating Article 370 has left the Congress in deep confusion. If now the party is mauled in Maharashtra and Haryana, there would be more leaders in the Congress speaking up against the high command. That the likes of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora, Sachin Pilot, Sanjay Nirupam and a few others have already made bold to speak in indirect ways is testimony to the groundswell building up which could precipitate a crisis that could ultimately lead to a split or a virtual split. It is high time the Congress wakes up to some hard realities—the principal among them being that the Sonia-Rahul combine is becoming a liability for the party at the helm.

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