NCP reorients policies at convention

NCP reorients policies at convention
NEERJA CHOWDHURY

NAGPUR, OCT 2: The sixteen month, ten-day old Nationalist Congress Party is positioning itself like the Janata Dal of yesteryears, a national party, with secular credentials, a pan Indian profile, if not an all India presence, which could become the plank of an anti-BJP, non-Congress formation in the future. That was the political message of its two-day national convention held here on the lines of a Congress plenary. But it was clear that it has along way to go to attain its objective.

The party distanced itself from both the Congress and the BJP, claiming that it was aiming to occupy the "main secular space" in the country, with the BJP on the decline and the crisis of "leadership", "identity", and "ideology" in the Congress.

Party General Secreary Purno Sangma made an appeal to all present and former Congressmen to join the NCP. "Whether we like it or not, since the NDA is not working, and the main opposition, the Congress, is not working, the situation will automatically lead to the realignment of forces and the emergence of a third force." Projecting Pawar as a future Prime Minister, Sangma tried to draw consolation by saying that all those who had quit the Congress had gone on to become Prime Ministers, whether it was Morarji Desai, V P Singh, Chandra Shekhar, H D Deve Gowda or I K Gujral.

One of the noticeable features of the Nagpur convention was Sangma's "reidentification" with the NCP. Since he became a member of the NDA-constituted Commission to review the Constitution, and the NCP legislators in Meghalaya joined the Government of which the BJP was a part, there was speculation in political circles that Sangma may in time come to join the BJP. "There is no question of Sangma joining the BJP'' said the former Speaker of the Lok Sabha. " I'm with the NCP and will remain with the NCP." The party too gave a new twist to why Sangma joined the Commission--as a "guarantee" against any attempt by the NDA to tamper with the basic structure of the Constitution.

The harshness of NCP's criticism of the Congress in the party's political resolution, and in the speeches of President Sharad Pawar, raised questions about the stability of the Congress-NCP government in Mumbai. But they also reflected the new politics of a coalition era, which has compounded contradictions.

The NCP is a partner in government with the Congress, from which it broke away last year. But at the same time it is compelled to criticise the party in order to gain ground occupied by the Congress in the state, and outside it, for its survival. Due to political compulsions, the Congress and the NCP have to group with each other to keep the Shiv Sena and the BJP at bay, at any rate for the time being.