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Ramesh Menon in New Delhi
After more than a month of bedlam in Parliament, Tuesday dawned differently. Finally, the Lok Sabha transacted the business that it was meant to, and the ugly and routine sight of members of Parliament rushing to the well of the house was not repeated during the day. And, part at least of the credit for this should go to the Congress party, which had paralysed parliamentary proceedings over its demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the defence deals scam.
So why did party president Sonia Gandhi agree to let Parliament prevail, after having made the JPC a prestige issue for more than a month?
While Congressmen are not willing to come out in the open with their understanding of Sonia Gandhi's seeming volte face, they are more voluble off the record.
"Stalling Parliament turned out to be counter-productive. We got reports from the districts that the Congress image had in fact suffered. We could have reaped so much mileage from a debate in Parliament as the government was caught on the back foot, but we lost the chance," says a senior Congress leader. In fact, MPs like Jagmeet Singh Brar are said to have openly voiced their concern that the party's image had been dented.
Pointed out another Congress leader: "Our case weakened when we boycotted the parliamentary meeting called by the prime minister just because Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy made wild charges against Sonia Gandhi. We should have ignored it but we made it an issue. The government just wanted to keep suspicions hovering."
Admitted a Congress leader: "In the first leg of Parliament, when the Congress had demanded the government's resignation, there was public approval as it went with their sense of outrage. But in the second leg of Parliament, when we continued our stalling tactics, it did not work as the outrage had dissipated by then. So there was no appreciation.
"The PM was also under pressure. So was the speaker as people started asking why he was not doing something about it. So, an escape route was worked out."
On the record, though, Congressmen are still shrill. Said former Congress spokesman Prithviraj Chavan: "Vajpayee is getting isolated very fast. The Shiv Sena is looking the other way, Mamta Banerjee has left. The TDP does not want to rock the boat but is not sharing a platform with Vajpayee. George Fernandes is angry as Vajpayee gave in to Mamta. One definite advantage is that the BJP's moral high ground has been lost."
Congress spokesman S Jaipal Reddy agrees that there was no firm assurance from the government on constituting the JPC. But he feels that since the prime minister had said he had an open mind on the JPC, it will not be easy to go back on it.
His views are countered by V K Malhotra, the Bharatiya Janata Party's parliamentary spokesman, who said agreeing to a debate did not necessarily mean that the party would agree to a JPC probe.
While there are murmurs about the understanding between the ruling party and the Opposition party, Congress leaders say it came about since both sides needed a face-saving device.
Within the Congress, at closed door meetings, a strong difference of opinion exists on the party's strategy. Said a Congress leader: "We blundered by diluting the issue and talking about Sonia's case. The opportunity was lost."
Expressing a dissident view is a former Congress MP: "We need not have stalled Parliament. The damage that the Tehelka tapes did to the BJP was tremendous. We should have just exploited that wave."
The fear among Congressmen here is that with Sonia giving in too easily, the perception would gain that the Congress turned tail as there were criminal cases against her secretary, Vincent George, and because of Swamy's letter to minister of state for personnel, Vasundhraraje Scindia.
Congress sources say that the BJP earlier did not know how to handle a belligerent Congress. But as it saw the chinks in its armour, it became aggressive.
Reddy says the Congress's strategy now should be to keep the JP issue alive. But the worry for the Congress would start as soon as the debate on the issue starts. Points out a Congress activist: "We have had a bad, below-par parliamentary performance. We do not have good speakers who can use the gift of the gab or even those who would investigate or study the issue well."
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