Still Drifting


Skylark 284 Frere Road Bombay 1
Editor KRISHNA RAJ Assistant Editor: Rajani X Desai Business Manager: A Fernandas Circulation Manager: Shiv Patil Editorial Staff Colin de Souza, Haresh M Advani, Shireen Heerjee, Ashok Rao THE new Congress will probably survive its programmatic confusion, its blatant inconsistences and its cynicism; its Achilles' heel may yet prove to be that it does not have a leadership in any genuine sense of the term. The economic policy resolution adopted at Azadnagar has been criticised, and rightly, for committing the party to numerous welfare measures without any consideration of where the resources for these are to be found. Similarly, the blatant inconsistency of the party president extolling inner-party democracy and at the same time pressurising candidates to withdraw from the election to the Working Committee has been noted. Also too obvious to go unnoticed was the cynicism of those leaders, including some of the so-called Young Turks, who after a day spent in public expression of concern for the lot of the poor and the unemployed repaired in the evening to their rooms in expensive hotels. Criticism of the new Congress on these grounds is justified, but these failings may not make as much difference to the effectiveness of the party as a political instrument as is imagined.