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     Kamal Hero Username: Kamal Post Number: 11696 Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 24.1.202.142 Rating: N/A |
Congress fans  "Each nation has an identity and destiny. As far as Bharat is concerned, Hindu is its identity and religion is its way of working" - Swami Vivekananda "Embracing Islam or Christianity would have meant going away from the cultural soil of India, which I do not wish to do." - Dr. B.R. Ambedkar | ||
| Iamim Side Hero Username: Iamim Post Number: 3752 Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 119.235.54.170 Rating: N/A |
Sonia effect: 12 yrs that changed Congress & Indian politics TNN, Mar 15, 2010, 03.07am IST NEW DELHI: Congress headquarters on Sunday wore a deserted look. With government establishments closed and almost all office-bearers enjoying the weekend or out in the "field", the crowd of party workers and favour-seekers who throng 24, Akbar Road were missing. For Congress members, though, it was no ordinary day. It was exactly 12 years ago that Sonia Gandhi was appointed party chief, in a development that stemmed Congress's downward slide, helped it recapture the Dilli Durbar after nearly a decade-long power drought and put the party on the road to re-capturing the pre-eminence it seemed to have lost. Twelve years, to paraphrase former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, may be a long time in politics, but few would have imagined the turnaround in the party's fortunes Sonia has scripted since the day when members of Congress Working Committee, deeply worried about the existential crisis facing the party, turned against the incumbent Sitaram Kesri to hand over the organisational reins to her. Congress, which had lost the pole position to a resurgent BJP in 1996, was adrift and threatened to sink further. The polarisation brought about by Mandal-Mandir politics saw the party losing the crucial constituencies of Muslims, OBCs and dalits in north India as well as huge political spaces across states to rivals. Its 'catch-all' appeal was blunted with the middle class, put off by the stink of corruption and compromises, embracing BJP's offer of a clean alternative and the bold espousal of economic reforms making the poor and vulnerable doubt the party's intent. The task that faced Sonia as she set out to pull organisational chestnuts out of the fire was tougher than the challenge Indira Gandhi had encountered after the party's first-ever defeat in 1977. A procession of Congress leaders invented various excuses to join the BJP. Doubts assailing the faithful did not disappear even when Sonia arrived, with many suspecting that her "foreign origin" would handicap her terribly. In just over a decade, the fortunes have been reversed with Congress regaining the number one slot and appearing well on its way to establish the ascendancy it has traditionally enjoyed. The 2004 polls saw the party score a victory "on points", by being pragmatic in courting allies and by capitalizing on BJP's pre-poll hubris. The chance thus gained was, however, used by Sonia to re-establish the 'aam admi' credentials lost in the wake of reforms and to reach out to the left-of-centre part of civil society which was never enamoured of Congress. |
