Mr. Vasantrao Patil has taken a long time to discover that Mrs. Gandhi is not interested in the “unity” of the two Congress parties. He should have known it all along despite his own compulsions to work for it. Mrs. Gandhi split the Congress last January for a variety of reasons, one of the most important being the desire to have an organization which was wholly subservient to her. Now that she has such an organization in the Congress (I), she cannot be expected to do something which may loosen her grip on it to some extent. In view of the pathetic performance of the other Congress in the vidhan sabha polls in Karnataka, Andhra and Maharashtra last February and in the subsequent by elections in north India, the risk from its merger with her party to her authority cannot be said to be particularly great. But there can be some risk, however, small, in view of the fact that most of the leading Congressmen have reservations about her. Their return to the Congress (I) can also encourage those already in it to assert themselves a little more vigorously. She might have regarded it worth her while to take this risk either if she had not done as well as she has and the other Congress not as badly as it has or if the Janata was reasonably well entrenched and united. But the opposite is true in both cases. She can afford to bide her time.
It is ironical that the very day Mr. Patil finally summoned the courage to face the truth regarding Mrs. Gandhi’s lack of interest in the “unity” of the two Congress parties, Mr. C. Subramaniam said that the Congress (I) was moving way from authoritarianism because the states under its rule were being allowed to function without interference by party bosses. He must know as well as anyone else that just now Mrs. Gandhi does not have much of a choice unless she wants to divide her ranks and create the impression that her party is as badly spilt as the Janata or the Congress. He must also know that the test would come if and when Mrs. Gandhi herself returns to her old office and that so far at least she done little which can reassure those who do not wish to see a return to the days the emergency. Like Mr. Patil, Mr. Subramaniam too, has his compulsions, though these are not as urgent and acute as the Maharashtra chief minister’s. For, he also realizes that he and his colleagues can amount to something in the political field only if they return to the former Prime Minister’s fold. But why pretend that Mrs. Gandhi has learnt her lesson and changed her style of functioning when in fact the Congress (I) is more of a one-person affair than the Congress was even during the emergency and when on the available evidence she is apparently determined to keep it that way? Perhaps she will surprise the country again as she has done in the past, this time by displaying a spirit of accommodation and reconciliation. But the initiative lies with her. Mr. Patil and Mr. Subrammaniam and cannot influence her decision or its timing, however many visits they may pay to her.