Uneasy alliance, Cong in mute mode

Aditi Tandon in New Delhi

AFTER joining the Shiv Sena-led coalition government in Maharashtra last week, the Congress appeared set to sit back and observe the possible future consequences of its move. It has not been easy for party president Sonia Gandhi to back an ideologically diverse Shiv Sena, which owes its rise to a deeply divisive religious and regional agenda.

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At one level, as Kerala Congress leaders argued, the Uddhav Thackeray-led outfit, with its Hindu versus Muslim and Marathi versus non-Marathi pitch, stood diametrically opposite to Congress’ Nehruvian ideal of inclusion. Yet, at another level, the Sena is ideologically not as untouchable as the BJP.

“The question is, who is a bigger rival — the BJP or the Shiv Sena? The answer is simple. Of course there will be concerns around how the Congress will reconcile its ideological differences with the Sena, which recently sought a Bharat Ratna for Veer Savarkar. The solution lies in a commonly agreeable plan of action with secularism as non-negotiable. In Maharashtra, we have achieved that. Even the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee had to keep BJP’s core promises of Article 370 abrogation, Ram Mandir and uniform civil code aside to craft the 1998 NDA alliance,” reflects a CWC member on how the party veered around to backing the Maha Vikas Aghadi despite ideological variances with the Shiv Sena.

Not that the Congress’ phase of reflection over the Maharashtra developments is over; it may only be starting.

The party is yet to bury the ghost of Karnataka, where it formed a government by gifting the CM’s post to a minority party, the Janata Dal (Secular), but could not sustain the arrangement. Result — the BJP returned to power in about a year of being “forced out” by the Congress-JD(S) combine.

Sonia Gandhi remains wary of Karnataka’s repeat in Maharashtra and has, therefore, directed that the party’s collective response to government formation in the state be muted. One reason she agreed to the Congress joining the Sena-led formation was to bolster the coalition and ensure its longevity.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar had been persistently urging Gandhi to join the government in Maharashtra for the sake of stability.

Having deferred to Pawar here, Sonia has now decided to play it safe. That’s why she did not attend the Thursday swearing-in of Uddhav Thackeray as CM, despite a personal invitation from the latter’s son. Even Rahul Gandhi stayed away. All Thackeray got from 10 Janpath was a letter wishing him well as the CM and reminding him of the need to offer a stable, secular and pro-poor government to the state. The carefully calibrated letter Sonia wrote to the Sena chief attributes the genesis of Aghadi to political morality rather than political exigency. 

“The events leading up to the government formation in Maharashtra have set a dangerous precedent for our democracy. I am glad the Maha Vikas Aghadi has come together to defeat BJP’s attempt to undermine our democracy,” Gandhi’s letter says.

So far as perceptions about Congress’ unimaginable pact go, party insiders believe their minority support base would understand the need of the hour to keep the BJP at bay. Earlier this week, IUML, the second largest constituent of the Congress-led UDF in Kerala, voiced exactly this sentiment. “We will not blindly oppose the Congress-NCP-Sena alliance in Maharashtra. The Congress and the NCP want to support the Shiv Sena out of the political compulsion of keeping the BJP away from power,” IUML’s P Kunhalikutty said.

Congress leaders also argue that Gandhi’s decision is broadly in line with the AICC political resolution of March 17, 2018: “The Congress will adopt a pragmatic approach for cooperation with all like-minded parties and evolve a common workable programme to defeat the BJP-RSS in the 2019 elections.”

The question, however, is: are the Shiv Sena and Congress likeminded? The answer lies somewhere in the womb of the future.