Earlier too people spoke of Cong decline, it will never happen: Shinde

On the campaign trail, the former home minister, now 77, speaks to Business Standard on the future of his party, his political opponents and the drinking water shortage in Solapur city

In 2014, the Congress was routed in Maharashtra, winning only two seats of the 27 it contested. Sushilkumar Shinde, a veteran Congress leader who fought from Solapur, did not make it to the Lok Sabha. On the campaign trail, the former home minister, now 77, speaks to Abhishek Waghmare on the future of his party, his political opponents and the drinking water shortage in Solapur city. Edited excerpts:

The Congress always professed to be a harbinger of progressive politics in Maharashtra. Despite that, it won only two seats last time against the BJP’s rhetoric of the Gujarat model of development. Is the Congress brand of politics dying in the state?

No. We have kept our direction unchanged. We have taken up issues of agriculture, drinking water, and employment. Our manifesto promises Rs 72,000 a year to the poorest in the country, and poverty alleviation has always been our focus. We are as we were.

If that is the case, why are several leaders from the Congress and the alliance partner NCP joining the ruling BJP?  

Many leaders, I see here, are doing that. They have some issues relating to their sugar factories, their outstanding loans. They are getting notices from banks and other institutions. They are switching sides out of fear; they are not changing their sides ideologically or at the philosophical level. These jumps are temporary.

Do you then think they will come back if the political dispensation at the Centre changes?

Without any delay.

But does this raise a question on their loyalty to the Congress line of thought?  

We are talking here about ideology, but they are in a more tangible mess… financial troubles… and the BJP is coaxing them to join. In such a situation, loyalty goes for a toss. Even if they go, I am sure they will help us only.

Now, you have been the home minister of India. What do you think of the internal security in the last five years?  

The way they have handled security issues is a total failure. What happened in Kashmir could have been avoided. A constant dialogue is necessary there. The political masters must have listened to senior officials involved in the peace making process, but that did not happen. Before the Pulwama incident, officials had asked for aerial transport for the martyred jawans. It would have cost us but a few lakhs, yet the government denied it, and 40 people died. Raising the rhetoric against or giving threats to neighbours will not solve the problem. It has to be solved by diplomacy.

Congress leadership has changed. You exper­ienced a different leadership in your long career, mostly under Sonia Gandhi. Now, Rahul Gandhi has taken over. What changes do you see? Especially, has the party not rid itself of the dynasty tag?

Rahul is young, and he understands the issues of the youth. He has new ideas for them, and he is well versed in the tech economy.

In the Solapur seat, who is your prime competitor: the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi or the BJP?

I do not know if they are strong, but some things cannot be missed. While one capitalises on politics of religion, the other capitalises on caste. This has never happened under the Congress in India. The Aghadi is clearly supporting the BJP… it is cutting into our support base.

24x7 drinking water is still not available in Solapur. You represented the region in the Assembly and Parliament for several terms. Why is the problem still persisting today?

It was I who completed the project to bring water from Ujani dam (in Pune) more than a 100 km away to the city in 1985, after which the water situation had improved. See, Solapur does not have a water source of its own. Had I not finished this project, the situation would have been worse, or similar to Latur, which gets severely water stressed in summers.

In addition, I helped the municipal corporation with funds of over Rs 200 crore to supply wastewater to the NTPC power project near the city, and use additional freshwater for drinking purposes from Ujani dam. While I did this before 2014, the project is not yet completed.   

Water supply depends on how the municipal corporation manages it. It needs proper management.

Going by a simple calculation, the Ujani dam has a capacity of over 100 TMC (thousand cubic feet), while the requirement of Solapur city is less than 8 TMC. Is it really a problem of management, or of political will?

It is a mix of both. Even eight years ago, drinking water was available in the city on alternate days. It could have been improved to daily availability, but it has sadly not happened under the current government.

Coming back to the Congress, are the new young leaders even visible? Was the situation the same when you joined the Congress as a young leader?

Even when I was young, people used to talk about the decline of the Congress. But did it happen? No. It will never happen. New leadership would arise from those party workers aged between 20 and 45. We old timers should also be welcoming to them, I think. We should let them lead and revive the party. Their thinking is more progressive than ours, and we must accept it.