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The Rediff Special/ Salman Khurshid

Why I am not a candidate

A few days ago Jitendra Prasada, a member of the highest policy-making body of the Congress Party, announced his candidature for the post of Congress president. In a document that pretends to be a manifesto of sorts, entitled 'Why I am a candidate', he has expressed his reasons for doing what has seldom been done in the history of the Congress.

This is but the fifth time that there will be a contest for the leadership of the party since its inception way back in 1885. That should make him unusual, perhaps even exciting. But his reasons for becoming a challenger to an incumbent president are somewhat pedestrian: He speaks of the need to ensure inner party democracy and greater respect for the party worker. I cannot imagine that anyone would disagree with this aspiration, least of all Mrs Sonia Gandhi. She is a product wholly of workers' adulation and that something special leaders have called charisma. She is also the person who most tirelessly insisted on a transparent and autonomous election machine for the party. She persuaded cynical old men to accept 33 per cent reservation for women and 20 per cent reservation for disadvantaged groups in the party hierarchy. Prasada has yet to substantiate his expressed concerns with specific models and articulation that would give his issues political life. Yet he offers himself as an improvement on the present leadership of the Congress. Of course he liberally castigates the 'coterie'.

There will never be a debate between the candidates, not even a vicarious one. But the country and the world are desperately curious to know why this contest is taking place and where it will lead. Having worked closely with both Prasada and Mrs Gandhi, I shall attempt a virtual debate for the readers' benefit. Mrs G versus JP.

Mrs G has been in the saddle for barely three years. JP has been in the game for a lifetime and indeed a member of the Congress Working Committee for over a decade. In those years Mrs G, barely recovering from the tragic loss of the elder Mrs G, lost her husband and India's young hope, Rajiv Gandhi. She spent seven years in virtual solitude, having spurned the prime ministership offered to her on a platter. At the end of seven years she reluctantly accepted a leadership role when the party was in doldrums.

She did not lobby and she did not seek. But she did respond to a sense of disquiet that everything Rajiv Gandhi had dreamed of would dissipate and disappear if she did not sacrifice her private life and accept the responsibility of public office. She took the plunge into the treacherous terrain of Indian politics determined to change its profile and tenor. There were moments when the magic of Camelot seemed to come alive; then suddenly broomstick-riding political witches unsettled the beautiful picture. Mulayam's betrayal gave the BJP an artificial second life in government and Pakistan's betrayal in Kargil prolonged it. The Congress party lost an election it should have won. But we gathered the largest percentage of votes in the country. And we rule more states than the BJP.

JP regrets that the Congress is a loser. He hates losers though he will soon be one himself. He was an advisor to Rajiv Gandhi. He was advisor to former prime minister Narasimha Rao, whom he helped to unseat. He became vice-president to Sitaram Kesri, whom he helped to oust. He was the president of the UP Congress and scored a duck in the elections with the vote percentage falling from 15 per cent to 6 per cent. His idea of alliances was to leave 300 of the 425 seats to the BSP in the elections. If you do not fight you cannot lose. His lieutenants left the Congress at a critical juncture to help the BJP form a government in UP. Some more have left to lead the NCP in UP. The Babri Masjid was demolished when he was advising the Congress president. But he says he has realised how wrong he was. He has not sought forgiveness, just support to be president. Could it be that he will realise he is making another mistake?

There must, of course, be many other things that might be recalled. Somebody forgot to tell JP that everyone in India is concerned about some issue or the other. But the issues can no longer be confined to clever slogans. It is time to revive Rajiv Gandhi's search and destroy mission against power brokers. It is imperative we conceive an ideology that will combine contemporary economic reality with a transparent and effective commitment to empowerment of disadvantaged groups.

We have to strive for good governance, compassion, decency, and change. I believe that Mrs Sonia Gandhi represents all of that in far greater measure than any other leader, both in the party and outside. That a large number of young Congress leaders and workers who describe themselves as the 'sunrise Congress' support her despite our defeat in elections is a significant political statement. We want debate and we want change but we do not believe we will succeed without Mrs Gandhi. That is why we are not candidates in this election. That is why we do not support JP the candidate. That is why we support Mrs Gandhi.

Salman Khurshid was till recently the President of the Congress party in UP and is now the Chairman of the Policy Planning and Coordination Department of the party. He has varied interests like wildlife and education but concentrates on public policy aspects of those areas. He is also a senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and periodically writes on the law as well.

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