So Mrs. Gandhi remains extremely keen to keep the Gujarat dissidents in the Congress (I). Indeed, it is difficult to recall another instance when she has gone as far as in this case to avoid a split in a state unit. This raises the question why she has adopted such a soft approach towards the dissidents. Some of them, including the leader, Mr. Ratubhai Adani, are highly respected public figures and it will adversely affect the fortunes of the Congress (I) if they finally quit. They could serve as a nucleus round which Congressmen, who parted company with Mrs. Gandhi earlier, could gather. Their action can also encourage dissidents in other states to leave the organisation. But then there is the other side to the affair. In negotiating with the dissidents terms on which they may be willing to stay on, Mrs. Gandhi is certainly undermining the authority of the chief minister, Mr. Madhavsinh Solanki, if not also her own. He may hold on to office for the time being, but in the long run he is likely to find his position to be untenable. And surely Mrs. Gandhi must know that she cannot draw the line in Gujarat. She will find herself forced to extend similar kid-glove treatment to dissidents elsewhere. This might have been all right if the rebels were in fact in a position to produce the kind of honest governments they are asking for. But it is not possible to name a state where they are in fact so well-placed.
This is a measure of the cruel dilemma Mrs. Gandhi faces in several Congress (I)-ruled states. Corruption has become a big issue in many of them. So long as the problem was taken up by opposition parties and the press, she could dismiss it as partisan activity intended to discredit her and the Congress (I). But increasingly the issue has come to be taken up by leaders of the Congress (I) itself. Mrs. Gandhi would love to silence the critics within the Congress (I) if she could. But her warnings have become less and less effective so much so that in the case of the Gujarat dissidents, she has found it necessary to try to persuade them rather than threaten them with disciplinary action. Not all the critics of the existing state governments are known for their rectitude. Some of them, including in Gujarat, have a rather unsavory reputation. But so concerned have the people become over the magnitude of corruption in public life that they welcome exposure from whatever quarter. Mrs. Gandhi cannot yield to this clamour without risking instability in one state after another and that too with no hope of improvement in the tone of administration. But she cannot ignore it either. She has to act if she wants to preserve her own authority and the party over which she presides.