Birthday party politics: Decoding the guest list of Nehru conclave

When the basic premise is flawed can the end result be right? When Congress president Sonia Gandhi organised a two-day international conference on November 17-18 titled “Nehru Worldview and his Legacy: Democracy, Inclusion and Empowerment”. It was attended by national leaders, some of whom have been critical of the former prime minister, and a sprinkling of world leaders, including former presidents Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan), John Kufuour(Ghana), O Obasanjo (Nigeria), Bhutan’s Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck and ex-PM Madhav Kumar Nepal (Nepal) who paid fulsome tribute to him. The celebration of the 125th birth anniversary of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru seemed motivated by an intent to highlight his legacy. But in reality, it appeared to be born out of the fear of an aggressive BJP and a marauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is going all out to appropriate all its national icons, ranging from Mahatma Gandhi to Nehru himself, and threaten the existence of parties in large swathes of the country. Despite the laudable objective of taking Nehru’s message of democracy, secularism and inclusion to the people, the irony and contradictions in Sonia’s effort were all too visible, raising questions as to whether the glue of secularism that she says unites India is capable of uniting parties joined by a common threat posed by Modi and the BJP. [caption id=“attachment_1808685” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Congress chief Sonia Gandhi with party vice president Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] Here is what Sonia had to say about secularism during the conclave: “There could be no Indianness, no India, without secularism. Secularism was, and remains, more than an ideal. It is a compelling necessity for a country as diverse as India.” There was no mention of BJP, RSS, Hindutva or Modi in her speech but the allusion was all too evident when she told the gathering of national and international leaders that the four pillars of Nehruvian philosophy integral to Indianness–namely, democracy building, staunch secularism, socialist economics and non alignment—are “being fundamentally challenged by some in the prevailing political climate today.” Her thinly veiled attack on the saffron brigade did little to camouflage her attempt to once again revive the secular-communal debate in the country and fuel fears of the threat posed to secularism by BJP and Modi. But the irony and contradictions in Sonia’s attempt could not be missed, especially since some of participants have had close links with the party they now consider communal and divisive and could any day return to that fold if it suits them politically. Nothing but the fear factor that currently grips them about the BJP and Modi explains why West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, who has been swinging from the BJP-led NDA to the Congress-led NDA camp to an independent existence, did not mind being seen in the company of her bitter rivals, the CPI-M’s Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury. Indeed, she was sitting alongside Yechury and CPI’s D Raja. Karat who spearheaded the move to pull the plug from UPA-I over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in 2008 was seated next to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. A friend-turned-foe to the Congress in the Maharashtra election, the NCP too responded to the invite. The many splintered groups of the Janata parivar, ranging from JD (S) to the JD-U and the RJD, too trooped in. Ironically, the parent Janata Party was born out of an unadulterated anti-Congressism which has been diluted over the years in the same proportion as the grand old party’a loss of power, with the JD(S) and the JD-U even sharing power with the saffron party they now denounce. Clearly, the onset of the election season in Bihar in 2015 and the panchayat polls in West Bengal in a few weeks from now and assembly polls in 2016 has driven the region-based parties to attend the Nehru conference, with their antennae up both about exploring or stopping potential tie ups. Mamata’s presence, for instance, was meant as much to keep her options open vis a vis the Congress in West Bengal as it was to prevent the Left and the Congress from warming up to each other to her detriment in her state. It is perhaps for this reason she later told reporters that she would join any effort to combat communalism that has reared its heads in different parts of the country, including in UP. But what should worry Sonia already is that even before the anti-BJP front could be hammered out, more than half a dozen other parties  chose to skip the event on Monday, thereby diluting the strong political message that such a conclave would have sent out. Among those who kept away were the NC, the DMK, the AIADMK, the BJD, the BSP, the PDP and the SP, with the first five having cohabited with the BJP at one point. But if elections brought some to the conference, it also prompted some to stay away. For instance, J&K is in the midst of elections where the PDP, NC and the Congress are contesting against each other and neither regional party would like be seen in the same photo frame as the Congress at this juncture. As for the Tamil Nadu and UP based parties–who have their own icons—Nehru is of little concern. Besides, they would either like to keep their options open with the BJP and Modi or play neutral. Congress’s own belated move to celebrate and highlight Nehru’s legacy of development, secularism, scientific temper and inclusiveness comes in the backdrop of Modi’s move to weave the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru into the daily lives of people through Swacch Bharat abhiyan and the Bal Swacchta Mission. The Congress could only wring its hands in helpless despair as the BJP leader turned all such programmes, not into governmental charities, doles and targeted affirmative acts, but into a countrywide participative exercise in which each individual was asked to develop a stake for himself/herself and thereby in the development and progress of the nation. For 10 years while the Congress was in power at the Centre, it did invoke Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Indira or Rajiv Gandhi but these were done essentially through naming government programmes (e.g. Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee act or Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidhutikaran Yojana). But the focus of Sonia and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s election speeches and rallies was essentially on the contributions and sacrifices Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. Is it now too late for the Congress to reclaim the legacy that Modi has usurped for the BJP-led government? And can the Congress blame anyone but itself for having missed the opportunity that the BJP has now grasped with both hands? Given this, does the compact that the Congress is trying to build on Nehru’s name and secularism stand on shifting sands? It would seem so.