Sonia should not and cannot escape blame for entering such an emotional battle without preparing her party cadres. A senior Congress party leader told rediff.com, "Our cadres in Gujarat are prisoners of soft Hindutva."
Sonia knew of her partymen's requests through Congress leaders from Delhi. The Gujarati leaders' demands were simple: 'Please don't speak on Godhra, riots, victims of riots, Rajinder Sachar Committee (the report on the socio-economic status of Indian Muslims), the U C Banerjee Commission (which ruled that the Sabarmati Express fire was not a conspiracy), reservation for Muslims or on Modi's brand of Hindutva.'
What do these demands mean for the Congress' idea of secularism and for the party's national identity? A senior Congress leader narrated an example of the BJP-isation of his party men in Gujarat. The Baroda unit put it in writing that the Congress should announce before the election that 'we will hang Afzal Guru,' -- the man convicted for the December 13, 2002 terrorist attack on India's Parliament. They thought that with such an announcement, they would win the election.
The entire state Congress leadership -- except Naresh Rawal, former chief of the party's legislative wing -- endorsed the resolution to induct BJP rebel members and give them tickets. As it turned out, seven BJP rebels lost the election on Congress tickets; one won. Rawal lost too.
Much before the election, Congress stalwarts External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony were saying, 'It is not easy to defeat Modi.' Therefore, a defeat even after making such huge compromises on secularist principles looks all the more humiliating and disgraceful.
The Gujarat election showed the complete disconnect between Sonia's and her party's regional leaders' gameplans to fight Modi. On the one hand, her party's 'chargesheet' against the Modi government avoided mentioning the 2002 bloodbath and she met BJP rebels clandestinely. On the other hand, she tried to tear away the soft Hindutva mask of the local Congressmen.
The unresolved contradictions within the Congress on the issues of secularism, regionalism and internal security resulted in the party's terrible defeat. Like the BJP, the Congress too had money power. It had a reasonably good party structure in place. If only Sonia had inspired them to stick to the Congress so-called identity, then the defeat would have stung that much.
During the past many years, it became clear that the state Congress leaders want 'soft Hindutva.' For the sake of strategy, it could be understandable for fighting Modi's formidable 'communal' politics; but, then, that compromise needed to be executed by a strong regional leader. The Left parties do it so brazenly in West Bengal in their economic thinking. For example, Prakash Karat -- the man who calls the Communist shots in New Delhi -- does not lead from the front on regional flashpoints like Singur or Nandigram.
Also read: 'Congress' wasn't in the picture!'
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