18. Politics of Commitment
THE MOST IMPORTANT event that took place in the last 2 years after 1967 elections was the mid-term elections that were held in 1969. Now, so much has been said and written about these midterm elections both on the platform and in the Press that it is necessary that we ourselves try to take a stock of what happened in 1969 and its political significance.
It is true that out of the five mid-term elections that took place, we lost in Bengal and Punjab: we decidedly won in Haryana; we significantly earned some new gains in U.P.; and in Bihar, though we have not won, we have succeeded in forming a Government. But we find a tendency of interpreting the 67-69 elections as a debacle for the Congress. I do not want to statistically interpret that these were a gain for the Congress, but at the same time we must take a balanced view of what happened in 1969. I find a tendency to so interpret the 1969 elections as to project further defeats, series of defeats for the Congress; and this has created a feeling of despondency in the rank and file of the Congress. This reaction will ultimately result in creating a feeling of despondency in the minds of the people as a whole. Therefore, I have said that in fact in the mid-term elections, the position of the party in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana showed improvement. In several other States also, the position has improved since the Fourth General Elections.
Let us go into the details of these elections. As I said, in Bengal we have lost. Yes, we must accept that it is a failure. But at the same time let us try to see the political significance of what has happened in Bengal. We know that in Bengal more than 5 million people have voted for us. May be that in terms of seats, we have lost. But 55 lakhs of people, even in difficult times, have stood by the Congress. Are we going to desert these people and say that because we have been defeated, we want to go in the wilderness. It will be our duty to stand by these millions of people and take the responsibility of giving them a lead in future. This is our political responsibility. We cannot forget we have improved the situation in Uttar Pradesh to a certain extent. Despite the debacle of defections in Haryana, we have won. I do not want to convert defeat into victory. But I do not want to create a feeling that nothing is there to save, that we have lost everything. This, I personally feel, is a suicide-complex. A political party with a great history and, I am sure, with a great future, should take a balanced view of things, take realities into consideration and then try to go forward. We can say that possibly some of the men have been rejected. We can say some of the leaders also have been rejected. But certainly the meaning of the election results is not that the Congress policies or programmes have been rejected. To interpret this midterm election in any other sense would be completely negating the existence of the Congress in the minds of the people.