Wake-up Call for Congress and Allies in UPA

The results of the by-polls in the four States of Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar have clearly demonstrated the wide gulf separating the principal constituent of the ruling coalition at the Centre from the public at large. Not only has the UPA lost all the seats, the Congress candidates could not save their security deposits in the Hisar Lok Sabha by-election in Haryana and the Darounda Assembly by-poll in Bihar, since they came a distant third in both the contests. Maharashtra’s Khadakwasla Assembly seat, which falls within the Baramati parliamentary constituency, a bastion of Sharad Pawar that is now being represented in the Lok Sabha by the Maratha strongman’s daughter Supriya Sule, went to the BJP with the NCP candidate, whose late husband had been elected on an MNS ticket, being defeated by a small margin.

The reasons for the electoral reverses of the UPA, and the Congress in particular, are not far to seek. Though local factors always play a significant role in by-elections, and they were present in these by-polls as well (for example, in Andhra Pradesh where the emotive Telangana issue went against the Congress which has till date not accepted the demand), the issues of inflation (food inflation in particular) and mega-scale corruption reflected in multiple scams afflicting the UPA in general (the corruption of the former BJP CM in Karnataka now behind bars, though not inconsequential, was less in scale and magnitude in relative terms especially when juxtaposed against the series of scams that saw the detention of a Union Cabinet Minister belonging to the DMK and a Congress bigwig as well as the removal from office of a Congress CM) took centre-stage thus ensuring the Congress’ drubbing with the UPA drawing a blank. This is a wake-up call that the Congress and its allies in the UPA can ill-afford to ignore.

To what extent the anti-Congress campaign of Team Anna in Hisar ruined the prospects of the Congress candidate equalling the vote-share he won in 2009 is a matter of close scrutiny. But from preliminary information it appears that the campaign did have some effect. Anna Hazare and his associates are asserting that their campaign was intended to pressurise the Congress so as to force it stop dragging its feet in passing the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament at the earliest, and they had every right to do so in a democracy. However, there is no gain-saying that this campaign was directly linked to its anti-corruption crusade, and in that perspective the records of probity in public life of the winner in the Hisar contest and his closest rival are dismal, to say the least. Hence there is need for Team Anna to introspect whether this campaign was the best way to exert pressure on the Congress leading the UPA Government at the Centre.

Meanwhile one of the most welcome developments of the past few days was the bail granted to IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt by the Ahmedabad District (Rural) Sessions Court saying the complaint against him stood on shaky ground and the complainant’s versions were inconsistent. This is a big boost to the police officer waging a courageous battle against Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in the context of the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in the State and a major blow to Modi himself. At the same time this is fresh testimony to our independent judiciary’s abiding contribution towards delivering justice and safe-guarding democracy that is currently coming under attack from various quarters.

October 20 S.C.