Cong giving short shrift to regional satraps

Assuming that the Congress has a ‘durbar’ or ‘high command culture’, it needs a cogent durbar policy too, particularly in the selection of chief ministers of the party-ruled states.

This felt need assumes significance in the context of the fall of Puducherry government in a bizarre and pathetic manner with the V Narayanasamy government losing majority barely two months before the Assembly polls.

On the face of it, there is a simplistic and perhaps convincing narrative of putting the blame on the BJP’s doorstep. Narayanasamy dubbed his fall from the chief ministerial post as a ‘murder of democracy’ and accused the BJP of indulging in ‘poaching’ and ‘political prostitution’. Similar allegations were levelled when the Congress was upstaged or deprived of forming a government in Goa, Manipur, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

But beyond the rhetoric, the Congress needs to introspect and accept some plain facts. While the collapse of Congress governments may be attributed to amoral practices, misuse of Central agencies and resources or the office of the Governor, the party cannot escape blame for undermining the regional satraps and having utter disregard for their aspirations or the collective will of the MLAs.

Rahul Gandhi’s stated bid to modernise and reform the grand old party, therefore, requires a ‘standard operating procedure’ for the selection of a chief minister. The culture of nomination or forcing a decision from ‘Delhi’ is eating into the vitals of the party organisation.

Old-timers may recall that Ajit Jogi was made the Chhattisgarh chief minister in 1999 when he did not have the support of even six MLAs in a House of 90. Instead of opting for a head count among the Congress MLAs, Sonia Gandhi had mandated Ghulam Nabi Azad, Prabha Rau and Digvijaya Singh to ensure that Jogi pipped aspirant Vidya Charan Shukla without any semblance of a democratic exercise.

There were similar stories when the Congress won the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in December 2018. This time around, Rahul Gandhi was the 87th president of the AICC. Rahul had remained uneasy throughout when Kamal Nath, Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel were selected to head the three Congress-ruled states.

Rahul first tried pushing through the nomination of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot and Tamradhwaj Sahu in the three states. However, a powerful lobby of the old guard swung into action. It had the backing of Sonia Gandhi. Within hours, caste-based aspirations and the idea of giving equal opportunities were buried and Rahul was made to own up the ‘two-person rule’ in the party. The results of that non-transparent selection process are still being felt in Jaipur and Raipur. This is not to say that Kamal Nath, Bhupesh Baghel (both state party unit chiefs then) or Ashok Gehlot lacked credentials or stature to head the government. The fault line was Rahul’s inability to order a head count in a transparent manner.

Puducherry may be a tiny Union Territory, but it has vibrant democracy at the party level too. A few years ago, the rivalry between Delhi-based Narayanasamy and N Rangasamy was so intense that Rangasamy, now heading the breakaway AINRC, had requested the then AICC general secretary in charge of Puducherry, Kamal Nath not to let Narayanasamy sit in his car. Somewhat taken aback, Nath had reportedly asked the then Congress chief minister, Rangasamy, why he was making such an unusual request. The response of Rangasamy was telling. He reportedly told Nath that he did not want Congress workers in Puducherry to get an impression that Narayanasamy was close to Delhi (Congress high command).

Rangasamy was not off the mark. As a Delhi-based politician, Narayanasamy, like Jogi, was 10 Janpath’s favourite. Many heads had turned in disbelief when Narayanasamy had succeeded Prithviraj Chavan as Minister of State during Dr Manmohan Singh’s time.

Some had thought Rahul himself should have taken up the job for a real-time crash course in governance. There was the talented lot of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh and others who would have benefited working directly under Dr Manmohan Singh. The political grapevine had it that Narayanasamy was chosen because he would listen to and carry out instructions from Ahmed Patel who was not holding a government position.

Narayanasamy held several offices prior to his stint in the PMO and in Puducherry. Around 2008, he was the AICC general secretary looking after Madhya Pradesh. The faction-ridden Congress consisting of Scindia, Nath, Digvijaya, Suresh Pachauri, Ajay Singh and others required a person who could rein them in. But Narayanasamy lacked the authority that was expected from a senior party representative. At one meeting, Narayanasamy was even heard addressing Pachauri, then MPCC chief, as ‘sahib’ though purely in hierarchical terms, he was supposedly senior. A joke used to circulate at Indira Bhawan, the MPCC office in Bhopal, that someone once asked a senior leader about Narayanasamy’s political stature. He replied that the stature was so high that many regional satraps seldom asked him to sit down. This may sound uncharitable but illustrates the deep rot that had set in the high command culture.

The Puducherry Congress had been seeking intervention for long. But the façade over the leadership issue in the AICC since May 2019 has been such that Sonia or Rahul never prioritised Puducherry. Resentment kept brewing. It was said that verbal offers of a change of guard were made and that the ‘promise’ was not fulfilled. There are talks galore of unfulfilled promises to aspirants in Jaipur and Raipur too. While there is no confirmation of these whispers, the key players keep nursing ambitions in the absence of a categorical denial.

The BJP may not be a major player but it kept a hawkish eye on A. Namassivayam, a restless Congress minister who resigned to trigger a crisis. As usual, there was talk that Namassivayam was not given an audience in the ‘Delhi durbar’ of the Congress.

The Congress leadership is still confident of preventing the BJP, Rangasamy and AIADMK from coming to power in the May 2021 polls, but a sense of demoralisation has set in after the loss of another Congress-ruled state. Would Jaipur be the next venue where informal promises have reportedly not been fulfilled?