Column

The post-terror leadership drama in Maharashtra looked like a remake of a flop film. The same old failed script of Congress versus NCP one-upmanship, manipulative scheming and dirty politicking. And the same old failed cast of actors. Two things stand out starkly to make us wonder whether the GOP (grand old party) is sinking into a black hole. One, even a stunning terror strike couldn’t shame the Congress into calling a halt to sordid politicking. Two, the leadership seems to be paralysed by a severe personnel crisis. Outgoing chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh made no secret of his frenzied efforts to keep his job. His meeting with Sonia Gandhi would have made his film actor son proud. According to reports Deshmukh was embarrassingly contrite and grovelled for forgiveness. He told Gandhi that he would never shame the party again and begged for one more chance. Discomfited by his histrionics, Gandhi said tersely that she would get back to him. Those who met him later say he was cock-a-hoop that he had survived. Deshmukh had obviously tuned out from reality. Or Gandhi has gone back to being an inscrutable Sphinx whose lips cannot be read by her party.

There are several reasons why Deshmukh’s lobbying and cultivated penitence didn’t work. One was Sharad Pawar’s insistence that leadership change in Maharashtra should be a Congress-NCP package deal. Yet the Congress dithered as Deshmukh’s mentors in Delhi worked overtime to save him. What may have tipped the balance for quicker action is Rahul Gandhi’s intervention. Take a decision soon, he is believed to have told defence minister AK Antony who doubles up as the point person for Maharashtra at headquarters. The family scion was galvanised by phone calls from south Mumbai friends who warned him that the Congress would be wiped out unless Deshmukh is sacked. This was the PLU (people like us) connection at work.

It was not easy for the Congress to wind itself up to issue a sack order. In the end, it fell back on the one and only troubleshooter it has, Pranab Mukherjee. In between crafting and monitoring India’s post-terror diplomacy, Mukherjee was saddled with the task of resolving the Maharashtra tangle. On Monday, he oversaw the serving of a demarche to Pakistan. On Tuesday, he was busy with a public relations exercise to calibrate India’s position vis-à-vis Pakistan. On Wednesday, he was involved in delicate negotiations with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. On Thursday, he flew with Antony to Mumbai to tackle the selection of Deshmukh’s successor. On Friday, he switched back to foreign affairs for the talks with visiting Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. In the evening, he was in party mode again for a meeting with Gandhi to finalise Chavan’s nomination. After a quick press conference to announce the name of the new chief minister, he rushed to attend the state banquet for Medvedev. Whew! It speaks of a serious personnel crunch that the Congress had to pull out its external affairs and defence ministers for party work at a time when they should have been concentrating their energies on the critical task of handling the international and domestic repercussions of the Mumbai terror attacks. The flop show continues. While Mumbai waits for strong action to feel secure, the political leadership is embroiled in bickering and quarrelling. Nothing could be sadder for a city battered by a horrific terror attack.

TAILPIECE
Younger Congress ministers of state in the Union cabinet are wondering whether the much-needed reshuffle of portfolios will go the Maharashtra way. The PM holds four major portfolios — finance, information and broadcasting, environment and coal. There are several capable young ministers in the government who are on tenterhooks wondering whether Manmohan Singh can work up the courage to redistribute his workload among them.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net