There is still more than a year left for former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Congress party General Secretary Digvijay Singh’s self-imposed ten-year exile from political power to end. So, no one can accuse Mr Singh of harbouring personal ambition when he routinely criticises his own party’s ministers for their acts of omission and commission. The Congress party has perfected the art of hunting with the hounds and running with the hares, but its too-clever-by-half strategy of playing the role of both ruling party and Opposition can sometimes go awry. There is a difference between a party leader criticising a minister in her own party’s government on policy issues, as Mr Singh did when he upbraided Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and in flying kites about whether it is time for a new leader to head the government. While Mr Singh’s loud thinking about Rahul Gandhi being ready to take charge as prime minister, and the suggestion that it is time to get married, may have been his idea of a birthday gift for a 41-year-old, such sycophantic speculation in a feudal political dispensation can damage the standing of the incumbent prime minister, weakening the party’s own government.
Sniping at a prime minister by members of his own party is not new to Indian politics. Through most of his term, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had to face attempts by self-appointed loyalists of L K Advani seeking a change of leadership in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. They had to be reminded every now and then that Mr Vajpayee was not the head of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, but that of an NDA government, and the views of the allies also mattered. The same holds true for the United Progressive Alliance. That apart, it is unclear whether Mr Singh speaks for himself when he thinks loudly or is flying kites on behalf of others. Whatever the motivation behind such supplication to the party’s first family, it does not help the party, its government and, indeed, the family that leads the party.
What Mr Singh’s loud thinking, however, does is to further weaken the political position of a beleaguered prime minister. It also draws attention to a power vacuum at the very top of the central government. When faced with a similar situation, Mr Vajpayee threatened to call it a day. Perhaps Dr Manmohan Singh should also tell his party that enough is enough. The choice for Dr Singh is clear. Either he takes charge, is seen to be doing so and runs a more effective office and government, or he calls it a day, letting those in queue take his place. While Mr Digvijay Singh has issued the usual clarification and a Congress party spokesperson has reiterated the party’s confidence in Dr Singh’s leadership of government, the fact is that while till now Opposition and “civil society” activism and governmental inertia have been contributing to political instability, taking their toll on governance and the economy, now the ruling party may be destabilising its own government. This incipient irreverence needs to be nipped in the bud. Equally, the perceived vacuum at the top needs to be filled with policy activism and political initiative to prevent implosion of the extant dispensation.