The committee went home perplexed. Were they not supposed to look into the ethics of ticket distribution and evaluate an applicant's `ethical qualifications' to be given a ticket. What is the point in meeting if the Election Committee has already decided who to give the tickets to? But may be they were taking their jobs too seriously. As one veteran Congressman says: ``The Congress is like Hinduism. There are thousands of gods.'' One of the biggest challenges for the high command is to find suitable designations for all its `leaders' so that ``they stay out of mischief and infighting''. As a result, a jumbo 150-member DPCC, one of the largest in the country, was set up to `accommodate' everyone.

According to party sources, the trouble-makers are those senior leaders of the party dissatisfied with being mere general secretaries or secretaries. There are already 12 vice-presidents and there cannot be more, they say.

The party thinktank then devised a way to get around this by creating what is known in party circles as `chai-pani committees' or casual committees. These are usually headed by respected, elderly Congressmen and are made up of leaders with considerable clout.

Such committees at the local level are the Ethics Committee, Disciplinary Committee, Campaign Committee and finally, the Manifesto Committee. But the only committee that really means business is the Election Committee, which has a say in the distribution of tickets before the elections.

Life in these committees is very leisurely. They are hardly ever known to meet. And when they do, they issue statements in concurrence with the high command's `point of view' and adjourn.

The Ethics Committee is headed by Brij Mohan, other members being Kulanand Bharati, Dr A.K. Walia, Mohinder Singh Saathi and Surinder Saini.

The committee's brief is to keep a vigil on the `quality' of candidates who will be short-listed by the DPCC. It ought to be most active during election time, but that is not the case.

Says Brij Mohan, chairman of the committee: ``We thought we would be considering every application ethically. But it will not be like that. Firstly, the Election Committee considers the application and short-lists a few names. If the Committee finds something wrong with any of them they are supposed to send the names to us for our opinion,'' he says.

And he insists: ``We will not on our own consider the complaints without being asked to.'' Though the Election Committee meeting is being held today, there is no scheduled date for the meeting of Ethics Committee.

The party also has a Disciplinary Committee headed by chairman Dr Roshan Lal and members include Prem Sarwaria, Krishna Swaroop, Radhey Lal, Balwinder Singh and Salauddin.

But considering the party tradition, the panel's exact function remains vague because, as sources point out, strict disciplinary action is rare. Whatever action is taken usually fizzles out with a a show-cause notice as had happened with Ramesh Saberwal, a general secretary. An aspiring president of the Delhi Youth Congress, he was pulled up for going to the press with his views about another candidate.

But when there are serious cases of dissent like the recent protest by Purushottam Goyal against a senior Congress leader no action was taken.

The party also has a Manifesto Committee which meets to finalise the manifesto but like the other panels it usually ends up endorsing what the AICC has already decided.

As for the only two committees of any significance, the Campaign Committee and the Election Committee, they are both headed by the DPCC president. But here too, their suggestions are not final as the AICC always has the last word.