Winners are often losers

ELECTIONS in five states have thrown two women into prominence, one for the wrong reason and the other for the right reason. AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha has become the talk of the country by belittling the majesty of law. Sonia Gandhi is in the limelight because she is presiding over the Congress at a time when the party is beginning to retrieve lost ground. Both know what they want and will pursue it relentlessly in their own style. Both have come a long way.

Take Jayalalitha first. Even when her nomination papers were rejected because of conviction on charges of corruption, she did not give in. She repeatedly declared at the election rallies that she will be the chief minister after the AIADMK’s victory. After winning at the polls, she said that she was the chief minister. The general belief was that if she was not accepted as a candidate, she would not be sworn in as a chief minister. Not even once did Jayalalitha prepare her supporters for this eventuality in case the state governor did not administer the oath. She flouted the court’s judgement against her as if it was a pronouncement to be defied.

By inviting her to form the government without any question or advice, the state governor, a former Supreme Court judge, has neither enhanced the dignity of her office nor of the law. She has proved that the strongest is the fittest. True, Jayalalitha has won a landslide victory. But does triumph alone matter? There is something called the Constitution. Individuals here and there may violate it, but the nation as a whole stands by it. The system would collapse if it was not there. In spite of this, it has been torn to pieces. Surely the Centre could have intervened. A similar situation arose in Bihar when Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav was convicted by the court. New Delhi saw to it that he stepped down.
I draw the country’s attention to the moral principles which Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, brought to the independence movement. He said, ‘‘Wrong means will not lead to right results.’’ I am sure his picture or statue must have been in the Raj Bhavan where Jayalalitha was sworn in. I have no doubt that her supporters would have taken to the streets if she had been sent back by the governor. But the nation has to decide, sooner or later, whether it wants democracy or mobocracy.

What has happened in Tamil Nadu has set a precedent which the country will regret one day. It is strange that Jayalalitha does not suffer from even a twinge of conscience. She would have risen in public esteem if she had voluntarily stayed back until the court cleared her. Now what is she going to do about the cases against her? Can any officer dare to stand in her way when the governor did not? And she has the temerity to say that her priority is to fight corruption.

One thing is sure: DMK chief K.Karunanidhi, her bete noire, figures on the top of her list. Not that he is an angel. But he will be made to pay for what she went through because of her own doings. Never before has India witnessed such a sordid drama of power and arrogance.

Sonia Gandhi’s case is different. She should remember that the Congress made gains because it aligned itself with other political parties. Last time she failed to prove the figure of 272 before the President because she wanted to go it alone. She should realise that the politics of coalition has come to stay in India and strong regional parties will have their way. Therefore, the glee of the Congress is not justified. Its performance was better in Assam where it was the only alternative before the voters. It has won in Kerala as a front. The party needs to introspect. Despite the non-performance of the Vajpayee government, the voters did not flock to Sonia Gandhi. The Congress, really speaking, has never recovered from the damage it caused to itself during the emergency. It should have said sorry long ago.

In any case, the speeches by Sonia Gandhi were as irrelevant as those of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Nehru used to utilise the opportunity to explain the problems facing the country. But Sonia and Vajpayee did not raise either central or state issues during the poll campaign. They were on their ego trips. Vajpayee went on saying everywhere that the Congress had called him a chor (thief) to his face. She, on the other hand, repeatedly recalled how wonderful the rule of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, and her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, had been.
How cut off both are from the ground realities! Millions of Indians are living on the periphery. Only a fraction of the benefits earmarked for them reaches their hands.

They want bread. Strange as it may seem, Sonia Gandhi did not use her daughter Priyanka for electioneering this time, although she used her during the 1999 parliamentary elections. This shows that, for some reason, Sonia Gandhi is keeping her distant from the party. If it indicates the end of dynastic propensity, it is a healthy development. But what does one do about the Congressmen themselves? Even a new entrant like Jaipal Reddy has reportedly remarked that the dynasty provides the glue to the Congress Party. Sanjay Gandhi belonged to the same dynasty. He introduced an extra-constitutional, authoritative rule in the country.

Somehow the feeling that the dynasty provides coherence and strength to the Congress does not seem to go away. B.K. Nehru, the greatest beneficiary from the dynasty, took Nayantara Sehgal to task during the emergency for opposing Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. He is believed to have observed: ‘‘We, the Nehrus, provide unity to the country.’’

If this is the thought prevailing in the Congress, its poll successes might well be a Pyrrhic victory. The party must remember how it won the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi in 1998 but lost badly in the 1999 parliamentary elections. The Congress should not misinterpret its success which is primarily based on a negative vote.

People are cynically changing one political party for another, hoping that someone will put the country back on the rails. The BJP-led government has failed them as much as successive Congress governments after Lal Bahadur Shastri did. So much disappointment has got accumulated that the very system is now coming to be questioned and the politician ridiculed. Rulers have to learn to perform on all fronts, economically, socially and politically. Problems have to be solved. A new compelling message can rally people behind something different, something forbidding. We should ensure that such a moment never arrives.

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