"Gone Are The Days Of Morals"

DESPITE the string of cases against him and the increasing pressure from opponents, Congress president and former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao is surprisingly relaxed during a one-hour conversation I have with him at his new residence. Convinced that he will eventually be vindicated, he appears determined to carry on. "I want to exit, I do not intend to hold on to the position of Congress president," he says. "(But) those who ask for my resignation do not appreciate my agony on the compulsion to continue. I have no choice. I have to rehabilitate the party, revive its ethos and put it back on the track." 

He adds: "I did not want to assume responsibility in the first instance. I had packed my luggage and was going home. They called me back. They should have waited. I would've gone after finishing my term. But then some of them were in a hurry." 

When told that he was criticised for not having given Arjun Singh his due (Rao's finance minister Manmohan Singh made the comment), he clarifies: "I made Arjun Singh number two and leader of the House. But after some time, the Aurangzeb spirit took hold of him. And see N.D. Tewari. I did not tell him anything. Still, he joined hands with Arjun Singh."

 While he does not name anybody else, he appears clearly unhappy that some important persons have left the Congress. That he wants them back in the party is apparent but without any prior conditions.

Of course, he is particularly upset over the campaign to oust him: "Why don't they wait? I want to quit myself." And mourning the new political culture, he sighs: "Gone are the days of morals." As for the cases pending against him, he simply comments: "When governments get feeble, a magistrate here or there becomes bold."

And would he trace the Congress' current crisis to 1969? "No doubt about it, the party has been going down the hill since," he agrees. The weakening of the Congress, he says, had led to the mushrooming of political parties of various colours. But he is not so much worried about them as about the BJP, "a non-secular party in a secular country with a secular constitution", as he put it.

"The BJP wants to polarise India, 85 per cent of the people on one side and 15 per cent on the other," warns the former prime minister. "This polarisation is going to be disastrous for the country. If you take Ram as your weapon, I cannot fight Ram although I can fight you. I refuse to believe that Ram belongs to you. You are trying to monopolise Ram." Rao says he cannot understand why an appeal in the name of religion is allowed when it goes against the grain of the Constitution. It is an unequal fight; non-secular matters should not be brought into the democratic process in secular India.

The worst period in India's post-Independence history, according to Rao, was the 13-day rule of the BJP. Even before getting a vote of confidence, they went about doing things which even a legitimate government would hesitate to do, he points out. Their law minister wanted to start all types of inquiries and made no secret of his intentions, against whom he was moving. "My information is that the party took copies of various files and documents before it left office," he alleges.

Speaking on the performance of his government, he says he gave the country's economy a different direction. "I was working towards improving the lot of ordinary persons. Manmohan Singh presented six budgets keeping that objective in view."

Then where did things go wrong? He pauses a while before replying: "The demolition of the Babri Masjid." He says he tried to build up a consensus for about three years. The parting of ways came on December 6, 1992. He sounds like a person who had his hands wrapped around success, only to realise that it was not to be. "I am not to blame," he offers in his defence. "If one of the parties has a non-secular, religious programme, saying it is going to build this or that, the results cannot but be disastrous. There are communities which may be having a lot of difficulties, constraints and conflicts in religious affairs but elections are not a way to resolve them." 

Rao makes no secret of his determination to keep the BJP out of power at the Centre. This is why, he stresses, the Congress is supporting the Deve Gowda Government. While he cannot say for how long this position will hold, he claims: "History will not say that it was because of the Congress that the Deve Gowda Government fell." Then why not join the Government? Rao says he knows that many Congressmen would like to do so and consider him an impediment in their way. "My worry is that once the option, which the Congress provides, is not available, the BJP may be in the saddle. The place we vacate will be occupied by them. We have to stay out to be an alternative," he explains.

Rao says his main problem is how to pacify his partymen in states like West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where there is a running battle between the Congress and the constituents of the United Front. "How do you reconcile the posture of confrontation in a state to that of support at the Centre? Regional parties have a different agenda."

 In view of the assertion of regional sentiments, Rao favours a debate on the presidential form of government. "When it was raised first, it could not be discussed in a proper atmosphere; the traumatic experience of the Emergency was there. Now it is time that we debated it. Some intellectuals should raise it." 

Clearly, Rao has his work cut out for him. As for the dissidents in his party, it is said that he once asked them to suggest a consensus candidate for Congress presidentship. They failed to do so. But does this kind of victory prove that he is capable of resurrecting the Congress? Only time will tell.