T he more the Congress changes, the more it sinks into a morass. We thought the hard knocks the party has taken in the recent past would force it to change. We thought the days of the family were over, particularly after the debacle in the recent elections. We thought strong regional leaders would get to enjoy more leverage within the party at last. And true, the "high command" itself has undergone some change since the days of the Indira Raj.
But as the recent change of guard in Orissa has shown, no amount of cyclonic storms can dilute the influence of the high command. True, there have been some modernisers in Digvijay Singh and S M Krishna, but for some in other state units it is that much harder to give up the earlier ways. Cringing before the high command comes naturally to Congressmen like Giridhar Gomango.
Indeed, several of his statements are reminiscent of the Indira Raj:
I was elected chief minister because the Congress is with me, not because
I am Gomango... I have always enjoyed the support of my late leader Indira Gandhi.
I shall not resign as long as the high command does not ask me to; I did not become the chief minister because of the support of the MLAs.
It was the high command that made me chief minister. I have gladly carried out whatever responsibilities were assigned to me. So I have to be grateful to the high command, who else?
Gomango clearly continues to be wedded to old certainties in an age of political entrepreneurship. Perhaps that is one reason he was considered somebody who could be easily pushed around, plonked in the chief minister's chair one day, when a certain wily J B Patnaik was proving an embarrassment, and pulled out the next. And through all this, his earthy smile remained. "I was working for the relief of the cyclone-affected and got relieved instead," he remarked, trying hard to make a tongue-in-cheek remark after Hemananda Biswal took his place as chief minister.
But the truth is, it has been people like the affable, soft-spoken Gomango who have quietly built the Congress in far-flung and remote areas in the country over the years. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha a record eight times (from Koraput), and is the only tribal Oriya politician to have been a Union minister under Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao.
Gomango is also known for easy accessibility and mixing with the masses, when the musician in him promptly emerges. Gomango is adept at playing several musical instruments, being a particular expert on the changu, a tribal instrument. He has a folk dance troupe which has performed in different parts of the country. It was this basic harmlessness that contributed to his rise in Oriya politics,
