There has been so much talk about the aspirations of a young India and leader after leader have espoused this view. But there falls the proverbial shadow between what is being preached and what is being practised. The Congress party takes pride into calling itself the party, which appeals to the youth – the Congress had severely criticised other parties on the issue of leadership (run by the grand old daddies).
But this sheen has almost vanished as the youth realise that there is no difference between the Congress and other parties. There is growing disillusion amongst the youth – they find the same old faces in power again and again – they want change – the Congress party has to look into their demands – because if this discontent builds up it can prove to be the party’s undoing in 2014.
Let’s take a look at the profile of the Cabinet and the party to get the clear picture: Dr M Singh, P Mukherjee, A K Antony, S M Krishna, V B Singh, M V Moily, S J Reddy, V Ravi, M Kharge, M S Gill, M L Vora, Ms M Kidwai and a lot of others.
Fallout of this: The present finance minister’s sagacity has never been in doubt, in spite being elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time he has held important cabinet portfolios since the time of Mrs Indira Gandhi. But age is catching up with him (he is 75); one can notice that he loses his temper far too often these days.
There have been many occasions when Pranab has lost his cool. Probably, he knows he is playing his last innings and in the final analysis it’s Dr Singh who pipped him to the post.
The performance of the Cabinet in the last year and a half has not been satisfactory –S M Krishna has blundered his way from one crisis to another. M S Gill finds himself in hot soup over corruption allegations and delays in the run up to the Commonwealth Games. J S Reddy has not been able to handle the urban affairs well – the flats scheduled to be ready for the officials of the Commonwealth will not be ready now. He looks weak and tired. Kharge, V B Singh, Moily and others have been equally ineffectual.
Antony as Defence Minister has been average while Home Minister P Chidambaram finds himself at loggerheads with many Congress ministers and leaders on a variety of issues.
The Congress party cannot expect to come back to power again merely on the basis of its glorious past. Its leaders would have to go back to people and connect themselves with the grass root workers all over again and face challenges from various corners. They have to prove themselves.
Be it Bihar, Uttar Pradesh or even Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, the ground realities have been changing rapidly and the State leadership has been lacklustre.
The most glaring example is Bihar where the Congress party is not able to get a capable leader with pan state acceptability. In Uttar Pradesh, the situation is all the same. Minus the Congress President and Rahul Gandhi, who is the Congress leader at the moment to take on Mayawati and Mulayam Singh all-alone?
Jharkhand faces the same kind of situation where the Congress party could not get a capable leader and PCC Chief Pradeep Balmuchu lost his own seat in the last assembly polls. In Madhya Pradesh, Suresh Pachauri is still facing the ire of factional leaders supported by Digvijay Singh, Arjun Singh and a few more leaders.
Down South, one could see the new audacity of Jagan Mohan Reddy and the open war between R V Deshpande and D K Shiv Kumar in Karnataka.
One of the reasons why the Congress president does not want to remove Dr Manmohan Singh is his impeccable credentials and honesty. But then, how long should a common man suffer and how quickly would the pressing series of problems be allowed to linger? It is here that the Congress leadership has to think in a positive and prudent way and find a suitable way out to take the country out of the present state of affairs.
Ajay N. Jha is consultant to the Lok Sabha Speaker. For comments, write to
opinion@khaleejtimes.com
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