Eight annas in a rupee

The ruling Congress is still groping for something that can give it the image of pro-poor, pro-Dalit, and pro-minorities. A new policy on reservations may lessen the party's support among the Other Backward Classes because the vocal and the influential section among them are all creamy. More seats in technical institutions spread over the years may not regain the confidence of the upper castes it has lost. More harmonious approach is needed. The Haj subsidy has made the minority like the Sikhs demand that their expenses to Nankana Sahib or Panja Sahib in Pakistan should also be partially defrayed.

The problem with the Congress is that it has run out of ideas. It is indulging in cheap gimmicks. No doubt, AK Anthony, elevated to the Defence, belongs to the Christian minority. But he is not an evangelist, nor a firebrand to go down well among the Christians, frightened by the anti-conversion bills which BJP state governments are pursuing relentlessly. I personally think Anthony would have been better in the External Affairs. Pranab Mukherjee, no doubt, brings maturity, but Anthony would have added freshness to the misty corridors of foreign office.

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The latest device intended to attract attention rather than fulfill a useful purpose is the garibi hatao program. It is going to boomerang because people associate the program with the emergency. It was at best an economic package to counter the harsh rule that the extra-constitutional authority, Sanjay Gandhi, had introduced. The manner in which the institutions were destroyed at that time -- the press gagged and one lakh people were detained without trial -- are fresh in people's mind even after 30 years. And of all the persons to announce the program was Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, a drumbeater of the emergency. Why can't the Congress pick up people with a cleaner image (AK Anthony is a welcome example) and go back to its old traditions of associating itself with the common man and his problems?

The Congress is fortunate that the BJP, the main opposition party, is immersed in communal politics which the nation on the whole does not accept. Nonetheless, it is difficult to explain what overtook the Congress to divide the country politically. True, it feels irritated over the stance of some non-Congress states, particularly UP. But this is in the scheme of things which a federal structure represents. The answer does not lie in the conclave the Congress has held of its party chief ministers exclusively. At best, it is a sectional response to the country's problems which demand a consensus.

This type of political caste system was never prevalent earlier. Whether the centre was ruled by the Congress or non-Congress government, it was a concerted effort. During the regime of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, all states except Kerala were under the Congress. But Nehru was particular to invite Kerala to every meeting he would convene to discuss the country's problems. He used to write a fortnightly letter to all the chief ministers to give them a sense of participation at the centre. Even Mrs Indira Gandhi, who made no secret of her dislike for the opposition, did not divide the country into Congress and non-Congress states. Whatever her other limitations, her approach was always national.

The conclave had before it serious subjects like agriculture, India-Pakistan relations, and the Naxalites. There was useful discussion and some policy announcements were made. But the party's forum is not the right platform to do so. Why is the centre reluctant to call the meeting of the National Development Council which has all the chief ministers and union cabinet members on it? The new agricultural policy that Dr M.S. Swaminathan, an expert, has outlined in his report for the second green revolution requires active participation of all states, not those of the Congress-ruled alone. Nearly 40 years ago, the first green revolution made India self-sufficient in food-grains. The second one needs not only massive investment but a united response to ensure food for the 1.4 billion people in a decade's time.

To give agriculture the topmost priority is a welcome step. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's exhortation to the Congress chief ministers to be "role models" suggests that the non-Congress states cannot be role models. Agriculture is a state subject. Even if all the Congress chief ministers were to concentrate on agriculture, they would cover only one-fourth of the country. The Congress-ruled states are: Assam, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi. Both Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir are coalition governments. How can the four plus two half states usher in a green revolution? The conclave had not invited even Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar because he did not belong to the ruling party.

The separation between the loyal and others, the pure and the impure, is the Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh brand of the Congress. It is parochial and dangerous. It smacks of arrogance of power. True, the Congress is leading a coalition for the first time at the Centre and it has to herd the flock closely. But it cannot divide the nation into the Congress men and the non-Congress men.

The Congress leaders do not seem to realise what harm they are doing to the country's emotional integration. They should introspect why the nation which blindly followed it has mostly left it. Years in the wilderness have not taught the party any lesson. The Congress and the country are not synonymous. At least, the Congress with its long traditions of unity and pluralism should not be guilty of something which the parochial elements may exploit.

If my memory does not fail me, I do not remember even the BJP, during its rule at the centre, convening a separate meeting of the BJP chief ministers to discuss national problems. Probably, the Congress got the idea when the BJP high command instructed its chief ministers not to apply VAT in their states at the time when the rest did.

The BJP has adopted the same attitude of not to prescribing the books that the centre has produced. It is going to play havoc with the students -- and the history -- if the books are revised with the change of government at the centre. If the Manmohan Singh government could rise above party interests, it will, indeed, be an achievement.

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.