In the circumstances the Congress (I) legislature party in Maharashtra has made a good choice. Mr. Vasantrao Patil has experience, commands a considerate base at the grassroots level and enjoys the support of Mr. YB Chavan, once Maharashtra’s undisputed leader. He is known to possess a healing touch and can carry people with him. All these qualities should stand him in good stead as he embarks on the task of undoing the colossal damage the administration in the state has suffered in recent years, especially during the 18 months of Mr. AR Antulay’s buccaneering. The job is extremely arduous and it is complicated by two facts. Mr. Patil is not in good health and the Congress is faction-ridden and full of adventurers who are interested above all in self-aggrandizement.
The two difficulties are, however, not insuperable. The first can be taken care of if he selects his team with care. He should pick up the most honest and competent men and women available to him as ministers and secretaries and give them the necessary powers and freedom. This should relieve him of a lot of unnecessary burden. He is known as dada and he should function as one – not as a nominal figurehead but a father figure who, while keeping an eye on essential policy matters, should leave the details to his ministers and secretaries. The second problem arising out of divisions in the Congress (I) is more difficult to handle. But it is not wholly intractable. He will, of course, need Mrs. Gandhi’s whole-hearted support if he is to keep the wild men in the party in check. Without it, he will not be able to manage. But he must do his bit to mitigate the difficulty. He must function as leader of the party and not of a faction in it. A number of Congress (I) legislators have tasted blood during Mr. Antulay’s reign. But even they can be forced to behave if the impression spreads that Mr. Patil is firm and that he is determined to give the state a clean and efficient administration.
A great deal will depend on how the party leadership and Mr. Patil deal with Mr. Antulay. This situation is strangely contradictory. Mr. Antulay’s support in the Congress (I) legislature party is essentially limited to about a dozen roughnecks, as the voting in the leadership contest on Monday clearly revealed. But he has played havoc with the Congress (I) ever since he was forced to step down as chief minister in January last year. He has been responsible for encouraging and promoting dissidence with the sole objective of staging a come-back despite the strictures by Mr. Justice Lentin, their confirmation by a division bench of the Bombay High Court and the criminal cases pending against him. It is typical of the man that when the Governor allowed his prosecution on criminal charges – in fact, he was virtually obliged to do so in view of the clear findings of the high court – he should have threatened to “take the people into confidence,” a euphemism for casting doubt on the honour of the Congress (I) central leadership. So his capacity for mischief remains very considerable.
So far he had at least not defied Mrs. Gandhi openly; he had content himself with saying all kinds of things about her privately. This time he has challenged her leadership brazenly. He first announced that he would be meeting Mrs. Gandhi on January 15 when no interview had been fixed. He had clearly made this and other announcements in his characteristic bluff manner in order to set the stage for staking his claim to leadership. Apparently, the Prime Minister failed to recognise that he was busy executing a carefully laid plan. Or else she would not have agreed to meet him last Saturday. He then took advantage of the meeting to create the impression that his candidature had been cleared by her and began marshaling his forces. The show on Sunday evening was not particularly impressive. Barely 40 legislators turned up for the meeting which he and Mr. Jambuvantrao Dhote had jointly organised. He then announced his candidature, though meanwhile the Congress (I) working president had put it on record that no one against whom a court had passed strictures would be allowed to contest for the leadership of the CLP in Maharashtra. Later in the night he retracted the statement to issue it once again on Monday morning. One of the A1CC observers informed him on Monday of the Congress (I) central leadership’s stand. But he refused to heed the advice. Not content with this show of defiance, he led the one expelled and six suspended MLAs into the meeting, although he knew that they could not be allowed to vole. While they made a nuisance of themselves inside the hall, outside a crowd of his “supporters” shouted slogans in his favour.
The people cannot be blamed if they are surprised over Mrs. Gandhi’s kid-glove treatment of Mr. Antulay ever since his money-gathering activities and other misdeeds became public knowledge. This would not have mattered too much if he himself had not taken advantage of her leniency to spread the impression that she had “reasons” to be considerate towards him. So if this time, too, she chooses to ignore his open challenge to the party leadership, she will do so at great risk to her reputation. A stem disciplinary action against him has long been overdue. It can no longer be postponed. Action against him and his cronies will also greatly facilitate the new chief minister’s task of controlling the party he has inherited.