FUTURE OF INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS IN BENGAL

PRANAB MUKHERJEE IS RIDING TOO MANY HORSES NOWHERE
Mr. Pranab Mukherjee is the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha. He is Defence Minister. He is the President of Bengal Congress Committee. He is the chairman of the Special Congress Committee on Telangana.

His recent resignation as the President of Bengal Congress and its non-acceptance by Ms Sonia Gandhi is a fiasco. His accepting moral responsibility for the poor performance of Congress in Bengal makes little meaning because he is riding too many horses nowhere. An octogenarian, who does not have a mass base in the people, a member of RS for three decades, getting elected to Lok Sabha for the first time all these clearly indicate that he is only a courtier and not an organisation builder.

Mr. Pranab Mukherjee's role can be compared to that of Polonius in the Shakespeares's Shakespeare drama HAMLET. Polonius in the drama hanged around the villainous king Claudius, flattering and doing rounds of an errand boy, till he while eavesdropping, was killed by Hamlet.

The Congress also seems to be resigned to the system of accepting minor partnerships in States overtly or covertly, in exchange for support at Centre. In Bengal, the campaign of the Congress was hence only a token. With Buddhadeb Bhattacharya falling in line with the economic policies of the Congress clamouring for industries and the World Bank loans not much difference is left between the Congress and the CPM.

Rebuilding Congress from grassroots in Bengal is not possible for Sonia or her nominees. Besides, her hands are full with the insurmountable task of nursing Congress in UP. In the circumstances, her choosing to continue the Bengali Polonius as the Lord of West Bengal is only perfunctory.

If this is the way in which she runs the Congress Party of 125 years of which at least 50 years has glorious past, the inglorious end of the Party will not be far away.