Tenuous peace

There is an uneasy collaboration between the states and the Centre, but politics is not far behind

- SONI MISHRA

The Congress, down and out after the Lok Sabha elections and crippled by a leadership crisis, is suddenly abuzz with activity. There are strong signals that Rahul Gandhi may be on the comeback trail as he takes centre stage in the party’s response to the current pandemic.

The Congress has tried to occupy the moral high ground by extending its hand in “constructive collaboration” to the Union government. In a recent news conference, his first in several months, Rahul said he had many differences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but this was not the time to play the blame game. Just two days later, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi set up an 11-member committee to deliberate on the pandemic. While former prime minister Manmohan Singh leads it, the focus is on Rahul, who is also a member. The first item on the committee’s agenda is preparing a report for the government on an economic stimulus package for the micro, small and medium businesses. And, in this regard, Rahul announced on Twitter the launch of a dedicated portal for suggestions from the public.

The former Congress president’s current stance is a far cry from his aggressive onslaught on Modi during the Lok Sabha elections, which seemed to have backfired. In fact, the party’s newfound ally, the Shiv Sena, has praised Rahul for creating a code of conduct on how an opposition party should behave when the country faces a crisis.