If the politics of the country moves in the predictable direction and culminates in the anticipated finale, Telangana could be the last atrocity committed by a political party on India. The expected rout in the 2014 polls will either destroy the Congress completely or change its internal dynamics drastically.
Both these results would ensure that the Congress is unable to turn states like Andhra Pradesh into ticking time bombs ever again. And if the other major parties learn from the Grand Old Party’s denouement, such fiascos would not be repeated. Since everything began with the Congress, it could end with it.
The Congress has been notorious for stoking unrest and anarchy in states for its political gains. Andhra Pradesh is burning today because, as we all know, the Congress sought to minimize its political losses by carving up the state into two parts in the hope that at least voters of the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies of Telangana would vote for it out of gratitude. The divide-and-rule policy, a style of politics the Congress must have imbibed from our colonial past, has led the country to many disasters.
There could be several examples, but the most poignant would be of Punjab from the 70s and the 80s. Reams have been written on how Indira Gandhi’s attempts to marginalize the Akalis for her party’s political gains pushed the state to the brink of Khalistan, a demand that kept it burning for almost two decades. Considering the federal structure of our country and its democratic traditions, playing with the fortunes of a state and its people for vile political gains should not have been easy.
Strong voices emanating from the states, a healthy democratic process where every opinion is heard, valued, evaluated and then a decision is taken would have ensured that decisions that are detrimental to a people are never forced top down; it would have allowed the will of the majority and the greater common good to prevail. But the Congress never believed in all these values, it always lived by the principle of handing down decisions like a despot pronouncing its fiat.
Two factors helped the Congress in this: a strong, centralized figure at the top whom everybody feared; and the complete absence of strong leadership in the states. Consider two exhibits Indira Gandhi and Zail Singh and how their jugalbandi of autocracy and sycophancy almost ruined Punjab. So, in short, the Congress had a system of sham democracy where all decision-making was vested in the high-command.
This high-command invariably took decisions based on its political avarice and short-term targets. And, unfortunately, nobody had the guts or the spine to oppose it. The current pandemonium in the Congress, though, indicates the old order is falling. Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh has resisted it publicly, the Congress ministers have embarrassed the party by storming the well of the Parliament and the MPs have defied 10 Janpath even at the cost of expulsion.
All these might be results of political expediency but it is clear that the fear of the high command is fading. This is just the beginning of the end. Rahul Gandhi’s hold on the party is not as firm as that of his mother. A defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, which looks imminent, will only make Rahul weaker. Even if he survives in politics, he would not remain the source of untrammeled power his predecessors were.
The weakening of the centre will simultaneously create circumstances for either the Congress’ disintegration or it reinventing itself as an entity dependent on collective leadership and strong grassroots. Look at it from any angle, the Congress of yore is going to die. But there are lessons for the BJP.
Until the advent of Narendra Modi at its spearhead, the party had remained a conglomeration of powerful satraps and central leaders. The Congress culture of hand-me-down decisions had not invaded the BJP. If Modi learns from the mistakes made by the Congress, carries forward the BJP legacy of collective leadership and lets states and its leaders powerful, the Telangana disaster could hopefully be the last in our troubled history.
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