Cong.(I) sends controversial 'Sandesh' to itself

By Angana Parekh

NEW DELHI, MAY 16. Even before the Jairam Ramesh affair has been laid to rest, the Congress(I) is faced with another controversy. This time, it is an editorial in the latest issue of Congress Sandesh, the party's official organ. The editorial by the magazine's editor, Mr. Vasant Sathe, lists the limitations of the party president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, talks of ``confusion and mental depression'' among senior members of the party and advises leaders aged over 70 to assume an advisory role.

Congress(I) leaders, including some CWC members, were hard- pressed to find an explanation for the editorial today. A screening committee for the party organ had been set up after the last embarrassment some months ago when a glowing interview with Mr. Ajit Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party leader and nephew of Mr. Sharad Pawar, had been published. Asked whether the committee had approved the editorial, one of its members said that editorials were not checked.

Mr. Anil Shastri, AICC spokesperson and a member of the magazine's editorial board as well as the screening committee, said that members of the board were free to express their views as long as these did not clash with the basic Congress(I) ideology. It was not necessary to endorse all that was written in Congress Sandesh, he argued, adding that the screening committee met regularly.

In the editorial, titled `Unity: Need of the Hour', Mr. Sathe has talked of the party ``once again facing a crisis of confidence''. He goes on, ``Soniaji has been and continues to be fully aware of her own limitations, both inherent and circumstantial... Her natural reserved and shy nature was a great handicap with the media and the intellectual elite. Language was one of the major hurdles.''

Though the editorial is not critical of Ms. Gandhi, the sycophantic culture of the party makes even such observations unacceptable, particularly in an in-house magazine that is distributed to party workers all over the country. While praising Ms. Gandhi for the ``progress'' she has made since she took over the reins of the party and exhorting Congressmen and women not to waste their energies on internecine conflicts, Mr. Sathe points out that it is because of the Congress(I)'s ``crab culture'' that all leaders find a common uniting point in the Nehru-Gandhi family.

``Not that there are no other more brilliant and seasoned leaders in the Congress(I)... It is a harsh reality that Soniaji is the only Congress(I) leader who continues to draw huge crowds in all parts of the nation. If she had not the charismatic Nehru-Gandhi appeal, the disgruntled elements could have tried to rock the boat, even if they had no alternative.''

A significant portion of the editorial is devoted to advising the leadership on how to revitalise the party. Those who are aged above 70 should now assume an advisory role, he has suggested. (CWC members such as Mr. Arjun Singh, Mr. Sitaram Kesri, Mr. N.D. Tewari, Mr. K. Karunakaran and Mr. K. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy are among those who would fall in this category.) Ms. Gandhi should form a senior advisory council consisting of such over-70 leaders, according to Mr. Sathe, implying that they should make way for younger leaders.

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