Mary’s little lamb?

Mary’s little lamb?

 

 

 

 

What no one mentioned is that there is no one today in the Congress party who can be blamed when things go wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

You don`t say!

 

Darius Nakhoonwala

 

 

 

Two noteworthy things happened last week.

 

One was the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly, which unleashed a feeding frenzy amongst leader writers, who huffed, puffed and harrumphed. I shall ignore those ignoble noises because the other event is of greater interest even though the leader writes have ignored it - all but one that is.

 

This was the re-election of Sonia Gandhi as the President of the Congress party which went unnoticed by all except The Hindu, which went so gaga over it that even I feel embarrassed by it. Let me quote:

 

"Congressmen are wont to get worshipful in the First Family`s presence. Yet it would be grossly unfair to attribute Ms. Gandhi`s iconic image in the party today to anything other than her own sterling qualities and inner reserves. Her political career is the stuff of fairy tale. Who could have guessed that the awkward, tentative Gandhi daughter-in-law who came to the rescue of the Congress at a critical moment would grow into a figure of such standing and importance? Or that one day she would enter history books as that rare politician who, offered the crown, turned it down?"

 

As Kishore Kumar sang long ago about the foibles of man, arre wahwahwah, arre wahwahwah!

 

It was left to Arun Nehru, writing in The Pioneer, to put matters in perspective. His article was called United Perplexed Alliance and it reminded us of all the gaffes that the Congress has committed in the last one year. Far from having become a Chanakya, Sonia Gandhi emerges as ever a novice, the very same one who claimed she had 272 MPs and that she could form the government.

 

"For the Congress, the electoral verdicts have been disastrous in Maharashtra, Goa, Jharkhand and Bihar. Barring Haryana, the party has little to cheer about. In fact, the situation in Assam and Uttaranchal too is no longer favourable. The campaign against the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh is like firing blank shots. In fact, Bihar is in a tight spot after the recent imbroglio."

 

"The real challenges will come in the second year as Assembly elections are due in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Significantly, the ADMK led by Ms Jayalalithaa won two seats in the by-elections held in Tamil Nadu. With these developments as the background, the war of words between DMK and ADMK is likely to increase as both parties fight tooth-and-nail in the coming Tamil Nadu Assembly election."

 

What no one mentioned is that there is no one today in the Congress party who can be blamed when things go wrong. Even the media, by and large, refuses to name Sonia Gandhi even when it is clear that nothing political gets done without her consent. And obviously it refuses to name Manmohan Singh either, because he has nothing to do with the political decisions.

 

This is an extraordinary situation. The credit goes to Sonia but to whom does blame attach? And why does the media, or very large sections of it, behave like Mary`s little lamb?