Double Power Centre

If you have double resources and double strength, success in the mission is assured. However, it is not always true. A double-mouthed man is not considered dependable in the society. Different political analysts have different views with regard to the decade old experiment of doulbe power centre in the ruling Congress.

Normally, the three powerful men in the UPA II, namely Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi avoid to express their stand on some critical issues in the media. Both the Gandhis find it more comfortable to place the gun on the broad shoulders of an ever loyal Digvijay Singh and fire. We have seen that both  Diggy Raja and Beni Prasad Varma appear to have the licence from th high command to pounce on any political opponent. So long the outspoken party spokesman,  Digvijay alone was expressing party stand  on ticklish issues, the party could cover up when caught on wrong foot by rating it as his personal view. Of Late, another spokesman, Janardan Dwivedi, also enjoying patronage of 10 Janpath, has also  started issuing statements in the press, occasionally at cross purposes.

Only a few days back Diggy Raja commented that the experiment of double power centre was not helping the party and wished Rahul to assume prime ministership after the 2014 general election. Just on the heels of this statement, Dwivedi argued that an excellent harmonious relation between Mrs. Gandhi and Dr. Singh has proved that the experiment of dual power centre was working well and the party wished it to continue even after the impending election. Many political analysts  believe that it may be an indication of Mrs. Gandhi’s thinking that Dr. Singh might be tried for the third time as she thinks that Rahul needs further breathing time to gain adequate maturity. A strong headed Digvijay lost no time to clarify that he still stood by his stand. As a result, there is allround confusion in the party to decide who, out of the two,  is more loyal.

On this development, Shahnawaz Hussain, the BJP spokesman had a dig. According to him, Mrs. Gandhi relinquished premiership in UPA I in favour of Dr. Singh because quite tactfully she wanted to enjoy power without any responsibility. If there is an achievement, the credit goes to the UPA chairperson. On the other hand failures are hurled at the PM. Does it appear to be a healthy trend?

Pt. Nehru, Mrs. Indira Gandhi and even P.V. Narsimha Rao, so long they ran the govt., a single power centre was in vogue. They had confidence enough to avoid fixing a  a whipping boy for pitfalls in the governance. It is true that the coalition govts. Have their limitations. But like the common minimum programmes, why the jurisdiction of power centres cannot be defind clearly to obviate chances of confusions.