What had happened at the August 24 Congress Working Committee meeting might have been stormy, but was not unprecedented. Why only Congress, such incidents take place in all the parties not only in India, but everywhere in the world. The leaders exchange hot words, accuse each other of working at the behest of political opponents and finally at the end of the day agree to disagree and be friends once again.
This is the beauty of democracy – some may call it its ugliness. It is only when these limits are breached that a formal split takes place in any party.
More than a century back the Congress was a divided house between the Moderates and Extremists. While Gopal Krishna Gokhale, said to be the mentor of Mahatma Gandhi, led the Moderates, the Extremists were headed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
After Jawaharlal Nehru became the president of the Congress in 1936 serious differences arose between him and the conservatives led by Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The situation reached to such a pass that once Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Patel even threatened to quit from the Congress Working Committee. This was followed by exchange of strongly-worded letters between Nehru and Rajendra Prasad. Mahatma Gandhi had to intervene and brought about peace between the two factions.
Nehru was much impressed by the Soviet Union and Socialism. He enjoyed the support of leaders like Jaya Prakash Narayan and Narendra Dev. The conservatives were alarmed by this development.
As if that was not enough, three years later in 1939 Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi almost came face to face. In the election for the post of party president Bose defeated the candidate of none else but Mahatma Gandhi himself – Pattabhi Sitaramayya. After the result, Mahatma Gandhi conceded that it was his personal defeat.
It is the other thing that Netaji later resigned and formed his own party Forward Bloc. He left the country to wage a war against the British.
Once again this situation arose at the time of Independence when Gandhi chose Nehru in place of Sardar Patel notwithstanding the fact that an overwhelming number of Provincial Congress Committees backed the candidature of Sardar Patel. The latter agreed to work as the first deputy PM and first home minister of India till Dec 16, 1950 when he breathed his last.
Though they had serious ideological differences, Nehru gave free hand to Sardar on several issues.
Though as the Prime Minister of India the credit for the unification of India after the annexation of Princely states should have gone to Nehru yet he left this task to the Sardar and fully trusted him. Thus, it is Patel who is called the unifier of India.
In the post-Independence India the Congress underwent three major splits in 1969, 1978 and 1999. This was largely because the leaders at the top failed to adjust and accommodate each other.
The present crisis in the Congress is of somewhat different nature. The August 24 CWC meeting might have witnessed some stormy scenes yet at the end of the day the dust settled down and things are quite normal. There is no sign of split and no action has been taken against any of the 23 signatories the the letter. Both the interim president Sonia Gandhi and the outgoing chief Rahul Gandhi might have been upset over the way things went on the run up to the CWC meeting and over the way the news of the letter got leaked. But that was all.
The leader of the party in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad soon clarified his statement over the offer to resign and Kapil Sibal too deleted his tweet. They were disturbed over the way the Gandhis, especially Rahul, reportedly charged them with playing into the hands of the BJP.
After all, in this era of 24×7 television channels such developments in the inner-party meeting get leaked and the issue is often blown out of proportion by anchors. What many independent commentators sitting in the studios on that day missed is that the ventilation of anger and open debate at the highest level are a healthy sign in any party. It shows the sign of democratisation of the party.
If this is really happening in the Congress, it should have been applauded, rather than criticised.
Why speak of the Congress alone. When in 2013 Narendra Modi was elected prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party replacing the patriarch Lal Krishna Advani, the whole process was not as smooth as it is being made out in the media.
One may argue that the present Congress leadership has become tolerant largely because the party has grown quite weak and is out of power. May be this is partially true. Yet it is also a fact that the present party leadership has in the past too given much more space to the voice of dissent than during the time of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Even in the rival political parties there is hardly any scope for openly challenging the top leadership. If anyone will dare, he or she will be thrown out.