Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, by publicly castigating on Friday the draft ordinance prepared by his own government and party (arising from an all-party consensus from which the BJP suddenly resiled) which would let tainted MPs and MLAs continue as legislators while they appeal against their conviction, has deviated from general norms of political discourse and political ritualism in this country. But there can hardly be any room for doubt that in doing so he has stoutly upheld the right principles. It takes not a little courage to defy conventional thinking when your party chief and mother (in the backdrop of the dynastic principle in the Congress), as well as the Prime Minister whom you admire, are ranged on the other side and on the side of traditionalism in political choreography. But then, the Congress Party has been no stranger to searing controversies and disputes in the 125 years of its existence. Bitter differences involving towering personalities — Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Subhash Bose, Azad, Jinnah, Rajendra Prasad, Malviya, Tandon (and Ambedkar, who was not on the Congress platform but dealt closely with its stalwarts, most notably Gandhi), to name a few — are the stuff of legend, and they arose from key points of principle and perspective. The minutiae of those discords would show the human frailties of our founding political deities no less than the inner workings of the government, the ruling party and its principal opponents, and the in-your-face approach of Mr Gandhi, which has thrown the political system and its close watchers off-balance, does. If not for the Congress vice-president’s open and forceful intervention, it is hard to see how overturning the ordinance, which awaits the President’s signature, could have been placed on the anvil. Some who see the big picture and acknowledge Rahul’s doubtless contribution arraign him for the sharpness of his language and (late) timing. This is opportunistic and breathless navel-gazing. So what if circumstances did not permit him to move earlier Should he have not moved at all It is to be hoped that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is being conditioned by his opponents to throw in the towel on the ground of having been offered a slight by Mr Gandhi, takes the big picture into account and understands that he and the Congress vice-president are on the same page as far as the morality of fighting corruption is concerned, regardless of the reality of Dr Manmohan Singh having presided over the Cabinet which cleared the draft ordinance. Left to himself, it is doubtful this Prime Minister would have conceived such an executive order. Nevertheless, Mr Gandhi, who leaves a stamp of leadership with this intervention, will need to prepare for the poll battle — whenever it comes — on his terms.
