NEW DELHI, NOV 9: An emotional Congress president Sitaram Kesri practically coerced the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to maintain unity and discipline in the party, take on the BJP-RSS campaign forcefully and ``institutionalise'' relations with the United Front. In the bargain, he buried all contentious issues under the carpet.

The much-hyped issue of the Jain Commission report was also taken up. But, the party played for time before taking any stand on it. Says the CWC resolution: ``The CWC notes with satisfaction that the Government has accepted its demand to lay the report on the opening day of the winter session.'' The party will set up a committee to form a strategy on how to deal with this in a few days.'' The session is beginning on November 19.

The focus, instead, was on the Bharatiya Janata Party. Kesri said he was proud of his MPs and was confident that no Congress MP would oblige the BJP and a united Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) will decisively rebuff all detractors and give the BJP a ``befitting reply''. ``I'm in my old age. I would rather die than do anything which will help the BJP-RSS combine,'' Kesri told a charged CWC in its three-hour-long meeting at the party headquarters today.

The meeting began at 5 pm and was largely introspective in nature. The members felt that the party was taking repeated blows from the BJP and had failed in its duty to counter the Rightist combine. On the Jain Commission issue, the CWC welcomed the Centre's agreeing to table the report in Parliament and asked the Centre to provide all documents required by the Commission to complete its inquiry.

On the relationship with the UF, a crucial paragraph of the CWC resolution passed tonight says: ``The Congress party has been lending support to the UF meticulously. It is essential however to rationalise and strengthen this relationship into a broad, deep and continuous dialogue between the Congress and the UF is institutionalised at the earliest possible, to avoid friction in the future.''

Though party spokesperson V N Gadgil later said this meant the institution of a coordination committee between the UF and the Congress, this sentence needs to be seen in the light of Kesri's recent hint that the UF offer a share of power to the Congress at the Centre. For the moment, the Congress is apparently preferring to go with the UF in a deeper sense.

What shape this takes in the coming days will largely define the UF's stay in power at the Centre. References were also made to former Union Minister Balram Singh Yadav's allegation yesterday that Kesri had failed in his duty and was allowing communal forces to grow in the country. Indications were that party vice-president Jitendra Prasada was behind the letter and Kesri felt it necessary to counter this.

Thus, in his concluding address, Kesri launched an emotional counter-attack and said his last challenge in life was to put the party back on rails and restore its glory of the past. He debunked alleged weaknesses on his part saying he needed the help of the CWC members to counter the Right.

Criticism of Kesri's style of functioning came in for sharp rebuke from the party president and his supporters like R K Dhawan, A K Antony, Manmohan Singh and others. The result was this para in the CWC resolution: ``CWC notes with regret that some party members are indulging in indiscipline by criticising the leadership and airing their opinion against the declared party policy through the media.

``This is highly objectionable. Dissent is part of democracy but it should not be used as a cover to indulge in indiscipline. The Working Committee directs the appropriate authorities (meaning the party's Disciplinary Action Committee) to take action against those who are indulging in indiscipline forthwith. Everybody should remember that no organisation can

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.