Talking about the leadership tussle in Punjab Congress, Lok Sabha member and senior party leader Manish Tewari said it was “a natural corollary of the politics of personality instead of ideology”.
Excerpts:
Punjab is going to polls in about six months but the Congress seems to be imploding. The party is divided between Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and State Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. You too questioned Mr Sidhu's advisors?
The Indian National Congress [INC] in Punjab has been tempered in the fire of nationalism. It was the vanguard of the struggle against separatism, extremism and terrorism in Punjab. More than 30,000 Congressmen and women were martyred to protect, preserve and defend the unity and integrity of India between 1980-1995. The Congress therefore, is a patriotic emotion in Punjab and not a political party in the conventional sense of the word.
There is no division in the Congress in Punjab. There is, however, a difference of opinion on certain key fundamentals. The reason I had to call out one of the ‘so called’ advisors is that you cannot just go against the national consensus on Jammu & Kashmir [J&K] as articulated by two unanimous resolutions of Parliament in 1994 and 2012 respectively. The INC is against the dismemberment of J&K, it voted against the abrogation of Article 370 in Parliament but at no point in time has the INC or any of its responsible functionaries held or believed that J&K is not an integral part of India. Anyone who believes to the contrary is way out of line.
Mr Sidhu has talked about lack of freedom in decision-making and doesn't want to become a showpiece in the party.
In my four decade long active association with the INC what I have imbibed is that politics means ‘we’ and not ‘me’. The job of every leader is to carry people along. Try and create the widest consensus among your compatriots on issues and matters. Democracy isn’t a contest between personalities alone. It is rather a battlefield of ideas and visions. The litmus test being its acceptability by the people.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi appointed Mr. Sidhu despite stiff opposition from party MPs and the Chief Minister. So, targetting him now is seen as challenging as her leadership.
It is the prerogative of the Hon’ble Congress president to appoint PCC [Pradesh Congress Committee] presidents. That prerogative has never been in question and that discretion is unfettered to say the least. However, where there is a stark aberration manifesting itself, as a third generation Congressman, I consider it my bounden duty to respectfully point it out. I do not think that, in any way even remotely, tantamounts to challenging the prerogative of the Congress president. All of us have also been appointed by her. She gave us tickets to come to Parliament.
Incidentally, I was her very first political appointee when she became Congress President in 1998. She appointed me as the national president of the Indian Youth Congress. I respect her as much as I respect my late mother.
Whether its Punjab, Chhattisgarh or Rajasthan, every Congress-ruled State is witnessing a leadership tussle. And the top leadership is unable to handle it well. Is it a sign of leadership vaccum at the top?
These turbulences are a part and parcel of politics. Every party is buffeted by them from time to time. Even the BJP has had to replace Chief Ministers in Uttrakhand and Karnataka. When politics departs from ideology and centers around personalities, such unrest is a natural corollary. We are passing through a peculiar phase of Indian politics where we are witnessing the death of ideology.
Won't the uncertainty about leadership within the Congress affect the prospects of Opposition unity in the run up to the 2024 polls?
Opposition unity against the current dispensation is a bottom’s up and not a top down process. The reason why the Opposition is coming together is because people want it. They are tired of the constant lies, half truths, chest thumping braggadocio, economic mismanagement, criminal negligence in the handling of COVID-19, the undermining of each and every institution of our Republic and the constant assault on the idea of India. There is an intrinsic DNA of decency in every Indian that is now revolting against the current regime and its default reliance on the Hindu- Muslim binary of polarization.
A recent dinner hosted by Kapil Sibal was seen as a resurgence of the G-23 [Group of 23 dissenters]. More than a year after you all sought reforms, how far has the party travelled in terms of addressing these issues?
G-23 is not a group of self seekers. It is an emotion. A sentiment of those ordinary Congress workers who want to see the INC return to pinnacle of its heyday. Those who seek ideological clarity, organisational robustness, political sagacity and an alternative narrative to the bigotry of the ruling NDA/ BJP dispensation identify with this feeling. Unfortunately there are ‘certain people’ who want to convince the leadership that ‘these’ people are challenging your paramountcy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that we lost 2014 and 2019 General elections fairly badly. The fact is that in the last round of Assembly elections we did not fare well. The fact is that young people, as opposed to us grizzled veterans, are leaving the party looking for greener pastures. The fact is this nation requires a rejuvenated Congress as never before. Unfortunately our intent and endeavour has been deliberately misrepresented by ‘certain interests’.
Finally, yours is a border State and has tremendous security implications given what's happening in Afghanistan and the State's own history. What are your thoughts on this?
The victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan represents a huge triumph for the Pakistani deep State. It has emboldened every extremist/ terrorist organisation in the wider Middle East and South Asia from the Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic State, Lashkar i Taiba, Jaish-e- Mohammad. The narrative that the Mujahideen/ Taliban vanquished the Soviet Union — a Super Power then, in the penultimate decade of the 20th century and U.S. the only remaining hyper power in the second decade of the 21st century has huge resonance in the so called axis of resistance. The implications in J&K and Punjab would be portentous in the days to come.
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