SC ruling yanks the sting out of Cong attack in UP

The battle for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh has so far been as much about forging a winning caste combination as about raising the pitch against Mayawati’s corruption. The twin planks, expected to prop up the party’s sagging prospects in the polls, are at the risk of breaking apart now. The Supreme Court’s decision canceling all the 2G licenses issued in 2008 could not have come at a more inopportune moment for the party. The Congress would like the electorate to believe that it was a DMK-orchestrated scam in which it had only a peripheral role, but unfortunately for it, the 2G scam would always be seen as the UPA’s scam and more specifically, the Congress’ scam. The party cannot dump the entire blame for the scam on the DMK and claim to be clean. Now, here’s a sampling of what Rahul Gandhi says on Mayawati’s corruption: “Haathi ghaas khata hai, aur saath mein ganna aur sugar mill bhi kha jaata hai, (The elephant here eats grass as well as sugarcane and sugar mills).”[caption id=“attachment_201876” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Supreme Court of India. Reuters”]  [/caption] “The ministers ate up all your money for five years and now she (Mayawati) wants to come out clean by removing them at the last minute.” “The National Rural Health Mission Scam (NRHM) scam is a reflection of the level of corruption under the present regime.” “Due to her (Mayawati’s) greed for money the benefits of central government’s sponsored schemes like MNREGA, NRHM, Janani Saurakha Yojana are not reaching the needy poor.” This has been the steady pattern of attack from the Congress on Mayawati. It has been taking on other parties on the issue of corruption too, rather too aggressively. Coming at this juncture when the poll campaign is shifting to the top gear, the Supreme Court ruling today is likely to land the party in an embarrassing situation. No other party is any better placed when it comes to the issue of corruption but the Congress has been the most enthusiastic about raking it up. The opposition would not let the opportunity to nail the party pass. The timing of the ruling is crucial. If the February 4 court ruling goes against Home Minister P Chidambaram—the Supreme Court would decide whether he could be tried for the 2G scam on the day—the party would clearly be on the defensive. This would mean all the hard work put in by Rahul Gandhi to place the party in a competitive position in Uttar Pradesh, where it has little organisation and no strong local leaders, to nought. All the advantage of getting off the block early would be lost. It is not easy for the party to wriggle out of the situation. The sting in its offensive yanked out, it could only hope for some time to elapse so that the notoriously short public memory erases the Supreme Court ruling and jumps on to some new development. But for now, it is disadvantage Congress. It has to work on the caste combination harder if it wants to put up a respectable show.