Lost at 125

Ever since an amateur ornithologist by the name of Allan Octavian Hume thought up the need for a political gathering in the 1880s,the Indian National Congress has never been stagnant in composition or ideas. Yet,it is not the historians within us who will look back this month,as the Congress marks its 125th anniversary,and wonder how the party straitjacketed its legacy and thereby Indias of argumentation into authorised renditions. However,as a mood of national drift settles in at year-end,the partys Delhi plenary this weekend will be keenly watched for the clarity it may instil as the Congress negotiates its toughest patch since returning to power at the Centre in 2004.

Anniversaries thrive on parallels,and the Congresss 125th bash is,of course,being compared to its 100th. Then,a young Rajiv Gandhi asserted his forward-looking vision,a year after Mrs Gandhis assassination. Now,court-watchers are bound to read clues about Rahul Gandhis future plans. But its not the choreography of succession that the party needs to get right it needs to acknowledge the popular image of a party at battle with itself,and how the so-called loyalists insinuate their agendas of self-advancement into its unsettled debates on key issues and policies. The long view of the partys history allows the Congress to assert its longstanding relevance in this countrys politics,and allusions to past heroes and struggles can be expected. Nonetheless,the Congress owes it to itself and the country as the main party in power to acknowledge the journey of the past year-and-a-half: from the euphoria of mid-2009,as it spectacularly led the UPA back to power on a centrist platform in a forward-looking verdict,to the disillusion of end-2010,as a session of Parliament stood virtually abandoned and national politics locked into a paralysis on key policy issues. How did the optimism of revival give way to fears of drift so soon?

The Congress misread the

verdict. It failed to recognise the politics of aspiration and economic growth that is now fuelling electoral waves and in its harking back to the days of its one-party dominance,it fell back on some bad old ways. In fact,it has shown every sign of trying to manage its way back to its lost grand social coalition by reaching out to perceived votebanks without a centralising,binding agenda for governance. Todays India has no patience for finding identification in intra-party or intra-government tensions. The Congress could make a beginning in its Delhi meet by acknowledging the problems it faces.