Right or Left: Cong in a fix
RAJESH RAMACHANDRAN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2002 12:01:40 AM ]
NEW DELHI

:The Congress party has so far not sought a debate on the Tehelka issue in the winter session which comes to an end this week, thereby letting the government off the hook on this embarrassing issue.

This controversy is in addition to allegations of the party's role as the 'B' team of the BJP in the Gujarat elections.

Now, the Congress leadership claims that it would try and raise the issue on Thursday in the Lok Sabha. The Congress had forced the resignation of Justice Venkataswami from the commission when it had completed its inquiry into 15 crucial arms deals and was in its last phase.

The party did not raise the issue of a final report on the Tehelka expose in Parliament, merely seeking a Joint Parliamentary Committee. Even the Public Accounts Committee headed by Congress veteran Buta Singh — despite the passage of a year — has not made much progress on the 'coffin scam' report.

On Wednesday, there would be yet another debate on privatisation in the Lok Sabha, but the party has still not made up its mind whether it would seek a repeal Bill or would merely make statements against privatisation of oil PSUs.

Even on Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress did not join the Left and RJD members' walkout over the Centaur hotel issue raised by the Shiv Sena.

But the pronounced shift to the right by the party is being attacked from within by leaders who feel this shift does no good for the party because its programme would be no different from that of the BJP. They give the example of Gujarat to point out that the party has not benefited from its 'soft Hindutva' line adopted there.

"We should have stopped at making Shankersinh Vaghela the state Congress chief. Instead, we had former BJP MLA Yatin Oza picking on the BJP for not building the Ram temple at Ayodhya. We had sadhus sharing a platform with Congress leaders. We did not allow even a single Muslim leader to campaign in the state. And finally, what did we achieve? We lost the state and lost credibility outside the state," said a Congress leader.

Asked whether the party would make former BJP chief minister Kalyan Singh the UP chief of the Congress if he joins the party, Congress spokesman Jaipal Reddy defended the party's line, saying it did not employ soft Hindutva and had not made any strategic mistakes in Gujarat. But now the party concedes that there was a Hindutva wave in the state which it could not judge properly.