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The Congress (I)'s China Connection

The October visit of Congress (I) president Sonia Gandhi to China underlined the growing intensity of political interactions between India and China. However, it is also instructive to analyze this visit in terms of inter-party interactions.

The CPC has carried out extensive studies on the reasons for the fall of the Soviet bloc. It has also sought to understand how parties in other political systems remain in power - from Scandinavia to Indonesia to Mexico. Hitherto, ties between the Indian Left and the CPC have attracted greater attention than the CPC's interest in Indian political parties. Despite its political embarrassments at home, notably regarding the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Congress (I), as the oldest and longest-reigning party in India is of much interest to the Chinese. Several reasons may be obtaining.

One, while outside observers have only noted that the CPC continues in power and that democracy in the form of universal franchise and free elections to major political posts is absent in China, there are very significant, if incremental, changes taking place at the grassroots level. More importantly, calls for inner-Party democracy have become more frequent, and are being espoused at the highest levels. In addition, at the recently concluded 17th Party Congress, there has been a greater acknowledgement that China's other recognized political parties had a role to play in the political system - China has already had its first minister from outside the CPC.

Two, following from this, it appears that the CPC could be looking at some controlled coalition-building. The CPC might avoid the uncertainties of 'coalition politics' and retain its central role in the system, while giving other political formations greater visibility. The whys of such a move are not hard to fathom. China's problems are increasingly becoming too numerous and complex for any one party to take the full responsibility for. Being the only party in power also means being the only party to be blamed when things go wrong.

Three, there is a different kind of 'coalition politics' that the CPC is engaged in, namely that within the CPC, as evident from the management of the Party's various factions - something to which the Congress (I) is no stranger. The CPC's factions are based on regional and ideological divisions that often overlap, but the CPC would like to avoid the possibility of factionalism leading to splits in the Party for as long as possible. However, if this becomes inevitable over time, the CPC would want to know how to deal with and manage factionalism, and to retain the core institutions and infrastructure of the Party as the Congress (I) has done.

And what lessons can the Congress (I) learn from the CPC? The Congress (I) has already transformed itself into a party that has overcome ideological rigidity, moving with the times, as evident from its decision to undertake economic reforms. However, it is important to note that the CPC leadership has been engaged in more people-centric economic reforms over the past five years, focusing on reducing regional inequalities and the urban-rural divide and revitalizing the social welfare system. While both Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh have raised such concerns, the Congress (I) as a party needs to do so with greater vigour and conviction.

The Congress (I) could also learn from the CPC's processes of selecting leaders and its institutionalized retirement norms. The one strongman system of CPC governance is long past, and Hu Jintao is merely the first among equals. The question of which of the two political parties has greater inner-party democracy has no obvious answers. The Congress (I) also needs to de-gentrify its top leadership echelons. The CPC has set age limits for personnel in leadership positions and has set in place an organized system of training over the past two decades and promoting its leading cadres based on their qualifications and abilities. The CPC has also recognized that its branches at the grassroots level have ossified and need revitalization - its push towards local democracy is aimed at addressing this malaise.

These are lessons the Congress (I), which advertises itself as "the largest democratic party in the world," would do well to learn, given its present abject organizational state. News that the Congress (I) had begun a training programme for younger grassroots-level cadre on party ideology and governance in mid-November is noteworthy. Moreover, there were calls at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session on 17 November for providing more opportunities to its younger leaders. In China, however, the fifth generation leadership of the CPC is already visible, while in the Congress (I) (as in many other Indian parties), apart from a select few with the right lineage, there are hardly any young leaders visible, and no telling when they might actually take charge.