Congress equity takes a dip
A political party that was laid-back for most part of 2002, played defensive throughout and then finally, lost a crucial political battle in the state even before it was fought, is how the state Congress’ performance in 2002 could be evaluated.

None, not even Shankarsinh Vaghela, whom Congress presumed to be an antidote to Narendra Modi, could save the party from doom when it confronted pro-Modi wave in state.

"Things were not at all anti-Congress when it stepped in 2002, just that the party fell prey to its laid-back attitude," is how senior Congress leader puts it. And with Godhra, BJP skillfully robbed opportunities off Congress — Mr Modi forced Congress to play on the defense - and emerged as the new messiah of the majority Hindus in the state.

Indeed, Congress was making strides in political arena in the state since 2000. Congress grabbed a major chunk of seats in district panchayats, taluka panchayat elections — 12 of the 24 district panchayats, 164 of the 214 taluka panchayats. Continuing its performance in 2001, Congress grabbed 80 per cent of the village panchayats too. Also in 2001, Congress succeeded in by-elections in Sabarmati, Sayajigunj and Mahua (Surat) while lost out Rajkot-II, where Narendra Modi was the BJP contender. It even won the Lok Sabha seat of Sabarkantha in 2001.

"Everything was in our favour and we were giving nightmares to the BJP," remarks senior Congress leader Amarsinh Chaudhary. "And then, Godhra turned the tide in BJP’s favour," he adds, even as state Congress president Shankarsinh Vaghela maintains that the party countered the BJP "quite well" and just that the false propaganda by Mr Modi resulted in Congress’ defeat.

Congress leaders confess that the party was in a dilemma regarding how to go about taking their stand on the Godhra carnage and the massacres that followed during communal riots. "Mr Modi was too fast for us," confesses a Congress leader. "And he was so successful in cashing on the Hindutva card that Congress was dumbfound and could not counter it anyhow. Looking at the communal nature of the massacres, it would have been against our policy of secularism to side with the Hindus while, our pro-minority stand acted against us," he elaborates.

Even though Congress brought in Mr Vaghela in mid-July presuming he could counter Mr Modi, the honeymoon did not last long. "His leadership was never accepted by the party," confesses a senior party leader requesting anonymity. Mr Vaghela’s autocracy did not bring him closer to Congressmen and created a rift that even disappointed the Congress high command. What more, during the Assembly campaign, he did nothing but, wait for Mr Modi to give him issues to play defensive, lament party leaders.

Republished from The Asian Age