12-10-2007, 08:55 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> <b>Has Congress given up the fight? </b>
Pioneer.com
Ashok Malik | New Delhi
As Gujarat readies for the first round of polling in 87 Assembly seats in south Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch, political sentiment in the Capital seems to be coming round to the view that the Congress has already given up the fight.Â
<b>In private, Congress leaders sound less than confident. </b>Notwithstanding the press briefing rhetoric, the party seems to have outsourced the actual politics of the anti-Narendra Modi campaign to ultra-secular activists and BJP dissidents. What should have been incremental support has perhaps ended up being the meat of the Congress effort.
Second, the party's flip-flop on Sonia Gandhi's "merchant of death" comment also indicates divergent priorities. When Kapil Sibal sought to clarify that Sonia's words were not meant for Modi, he was trying to pre-empt any action by the Election Commission (EC).
The following day Abhishek Singhvi contradicted Sibal and insisted the description was one of Modi. This suggested that, more than the Gujarat election, sending the "right message" to Muslim voters across the country -- presuming they are motivated only by a single-point hate-Modi agenda -- was deemed important.
Of course, following the EC notice, Singhvi has contradicted himself and now said that Modi was not actually Sonia's target, leaving the party even more confused.
Finally, Prakash Karat's disclosure that the CPI(M) had gone easy on the nuclear deal issue so as not to "destabilise" the Congress before the Gujarat election may be hiding more than it reveals. If temporarily keeping the Congress' credibility intact was the paramount concern, Karat should have confessed to the phoney truce only on the evening of December 16. After the second round of polling in Gujarat, he could have renewed his warning against operationalising the India-United States nuclear agreement.
Instead, he chose to do it before voting began at all. Was this unstated acceptance that the Congress had lost Gujarat and that the CPI(M) saw no reason to hold its fire any longer?
<b>Senior Congress functionaries admit that "regional sentiment" may be an overriding factor in Gujarat.</b> It is a tacit admission that taking the Gujarat campaign to such a high pitch and virtually pitting Sonia Gandhi against Modi only ended up playing into the hands of the incumbent Chief Minister.
Not since 1987, when Rajiv Gandhi put his energies into attempting to oust Jyoti Basu in West Bengal, has a national leader made a State-level election such a personal battle against an entrenched local strongman. As it happened, Basu and the Left Front returned to office with a huge majority. <b>After 20 years, is history looking to repeat itself? </b>
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Pioneer.com
Ashok Malik | New Delhi
As Gujarat readies for the first round of polling in 87 Assembly seats in south Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch, political sentiment in the Capital seems to be coming round to the view that the Congress has already given up the fight.Â
<b>In private, Congress leaders sound less than confident. </b>Notwithstanding the press briefing rhetoric, the party seems to have outsourced the actual politics of the anti-Narendra Modi campaign to ultra-secular activists and BJP dissidents. What should have been incremental support has perhaps ended up being the meat of the Congress effort.
Second, the party's flip-flop on Sonia Gandhi's "merchant of death" comment also indicates divergent priorities. When Kapil Sibal sought to clarify that Sonia's words were not meant for Modi, he was trying to pre-empt any action by the Election Commission (EC).
The following day Abhishek Singhvi contradicted Sibal and insisted the description was one of Modi. This suggested that, more than the Gujarat election, sending the "right message" to Muslim voters across the country -- presuming they are motivated only by a single-point hate-Modi agenda -- was deemed important.
Of course, following the EC notice, Singhvi has contradicted himself and now said that Modi was not actually Sonia's target, leaving the party even more confused.
Finally, Prakash Karat's disclosure that the CPI(M) had gone easy on the nuclear deal issue so as not to "destabilise" the Congress before the Gujarat election may be hiding more than it reveals. If temporarily keeping the Congress' credibility intact was the paramount concern, Karat should have confessed to the phoney truce only on the evening of December 16. After the second round of polling in Gujarat, he could have renewed his warning against operationalising the India-United States nuclear agreement.
Instead, he chose to do it before voting began at all. Was this unstated acceptance that the Congress had lost Gujarat and that the CPI(M) saw no reason to hold its fire any longer?
<b>Senior Congress functionaries admit that "regional sentiment" may be an overriding factor in Gujarat.</b> It is a tacit admission that taking the Gujarat campaign to such a high pitch and virtually pitting Sonia Gandhi against Modi only ended up playing into the hands of the incumbent Chief Minister.
Not since 1987, when Rajiv Gandhi put his energies into attempting to oust Jyoti Basu in West Bengal, has a national leader made a State-level election such a personal battle against an entrenched local strongman. As it happened, Basu and the Left Front returned to office with a huge majority. <b>After 20 years, is history looking to repeat itself? </b>
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