WILLIAM Gladstone, the Liberal leader who became Prime Minister of Britain four times, was a man of impressive accomplishments. What is less well-known about this eminent Victorian was his habit of scouring the streets of London at night "picking up fallen women" in order to save their souls. One night, so an apocryphal story goes, he rescued a particularly seasoned practitioner of the trade. He gave her a stern lecture, some coins, a cup of hot soup and escorted her to a sort of remand home where ladies of her persuasion were reformed. She swore on the Bible to mend her ways. Some weeks later, he encountered the same woman again, soliciting. Gladstone was livid; the streetwalker contrite. "I couldn't help myself, Sir," was the explanation she gave.
The Congress led by Sitaram Kesri reminds me of the fallen woman. The party is humiliated and disgraced (not just defeated) by the electorate in national, state and local elections; its leaders publicly acknowledge the voters are right to punish them because they have been really bad boys. For a couple of years at least, we are told, the Congress will sit on the Opposition benches and do penance. But soon enough the party is back to its wicked, wicked ways, behaving with all the responsibility of a whore. They just can't help themselves?
The Congress President, no doubt, is being told by his sycophants that with one strike he has loosened the various nooses, both political and criminal, fast closing around his neck. An 82-year-old ailing leader has shown how bold and decisive action is taken. This is what Kesri and gang believe. What the nation believes is entirely different and I don't want to depress readers by enumerating the base reasons for Kesri's despicable brinkmanship.
The question, of course, is what else did we expect? If you make a near-senile man, who has risen in public life by servile flattery, total absence of scruples and a masterly capacity for survival, leader of India's oldest and till recently most respected party, bordello tactics are only to be expected. As someone who occasionally writes on the dirty games being played in the capital, I have urged readers not to fall prey to cynicism. With Sitaram Kesri I can make no such plea.
Kesri's letter to President Shankar Dayal Sharma withdrawing support was inspired gobbledygook. At least Rajiv had two plain-clothed Haryana policemen, what did the Congress President have in the nature of an excuse? Somebody must have told Kesri that his letter was laughable and soon enough we had at least a more comprehensible complaint: Prime Minister Deve Gowda was hobnobbing with communal forces. Proof: witness his visit to Amitabh Bachchan's house where he met BalThackeray.
Feeling encouraged at having come up with a water-tight charge, Kesri staked the Congress claim for forming a government "in the national interest" with the help of non-BJP parties. The 130-odd MPs needed for the exercise, Kesri told his party, had been already negotiated and would be revealed in a day or two.
Diligent followers of the press may already have knowledge, but thought it would be useful to give readers an account of the criminal record of the party exerting so strenuously to lead the nextcoalition. Here is the full rogue's gallery.
Congress leader who has been convicted:
- Kalpnath Rai—terrorism.
Congress leaders who have been charge-sheeted for various crimes:
- P.V. Narasimha Rao—(a) St Kitts forgery case; (b) Lakhubhai cheating case; (c) JMM bribery case.
- Sukh Ram—Telecom scam.
- Satish Sharma— (a) allocation of petrol pumps and gas agencies; (b) JMM bribery case; (c) petroleum deals.
- Jain Hawala case:
- (a) Kamal Nath;
- (b) Madhavrao Scindia;
- (c) Arjun Singh;
- (d) Buta Singh;
- (e) Kalpnath Rai;
- (f) V.C. Shukla;
- (g) C.K. Jaffer Sharief;
- (h) Balram Jakhar;
- (i) Arvind Netam;
- (j) K. Natwar Singh;
- (k) R.K. Dhawan;
- (l) L.P. Sahi;
- (m) Motilal Vora;
- (n) P. ShivShankar.
- H.K.L. Bhagat—Sikh riot case.
- Sajjan Kumar—Sikh riot case.
- Bhajan Lal—(a) JMM case; (b) land allotment case.
- Ajit Singh—JMM case.
Congress leaders who are under investigation:
- K. Karunakaran—Palmolein oil deal.
- S. Krishnakumar—FERA violation.
- Sitaram Kesri—(a) Dr Tanwar murder case; (b) collection of disproportionate assets.
- Sheila Kaul—housing scam.
- P.K. Thungon—housing scam.
- Ghulam Nabi Azad—(a) shop lease case; (b) aircraft lease case.
- B. Shankaranand—securities scam.
Anyone left? With this kind of shameful record, Congress leaders should be down on their knees begging forgiveness of thenation, pleading for time during which they can show improved behaviour. Instead, they have jeopardised a widely popular Budget, derailed a historic Indo-Pak opportunity to normalise relations, and undermined investor confidence in this country and overseas. For what? To satisfy the irrational whims of a reckless geriatric.
As I write this (on Saturday, April 5), it is glaringly obvious to Congress leaders that Kesri is taking the party for a ride. Forget the extra 130 MPs, he does not have one MP to back him. And now we also know he never did. It was a confidence trick from day one. So, Mr Kesri is fully naked. Admittedly, that is not a pretty sight and some United Front leaders are in favour of throwing him a langoti. A face-saving device must be worked out so that he can face his party without getting lynched.
While it would be a fine and fitting lynching, the Congress President, once he realises he has no more cards to play, may go for broke and actually carry out his threat, even at the risk of splitting the party. If the survival of the United Front Government requires the sacrifice of Gowda, that head should be delivered. Kesri accused Gowda of hobnobbing with communal forces, actually it is the Congress President who seems hand-in-glove with the BJP, the only party itching for a fresh election—which given the present mood of the electorate is almost certain to get them an absolute majority.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders should for once show courage and swiftly decide on a suitable punishment for the renegade. Nothing else will be acceptable. In public life, oblivion is the severest punishment. Sitaram Kesri should be banished by the Congress to his native place with the greatest possible dispatch and the greatest possible disgrace. Only then can the party embark on the slow and uphill road to political rehabilitation.
