A history Congress prefers to brush aside

The New Indian Express Last Updated : 01 Jun 2011 01:31:34 AM IST
The fifth volume in the series of publications on the Congress’ history is proving to be as embarrassing for the party as the earlier ones. The Emergency was criticised in an earlier book although the blame for its excesses was sought to be shifted from Indira Gandhi to Sanjay Gandhi. In the latest volume, however, Indira herself has come in the direct line of fire with the author, Sudha Pai, blaming her personalised style of functioning for stifling internal democracy and leading to the party’s decline in Uttar Pradesh. Although the focus is on one state, anyone conversant with recent history will know that the same reason was responsible for the Congress’ overall decline.
As may be expected, there have been murmurs of dissatisfaction from several Congressmen, whose habitual sycophancy evidently comes in the way of an uncluttered look at one of their icons, however correct the interpretation may be. Although party spokesman Manish Tiwari has sought to brush aside such criticism by saying that the articles have been commissioned from well-known analysts on the occasion of the party’s 125th anniversary, the fact that Pranab Mukherjee is the chief editor of these volumes gives an official stamp of approval to the controversial assessments. What is more, since the Nehru-Gandhi family’s operating style has not changed from Indira’s time, both the Congress’ friends and foes may see these opinions as a dig at the party’s present leaders.
When the party spokesman says, however, that these publications are not the party’s authorised history, he is probably distancing the organisations from the unflattering evaluations. But since the written word, like the thrown dart, cannot be recalled, the authorised version, if and when it is penned, will have to take these critical assessments into account. The fallout will be a thumbs up for history itself.