In the beginning let my wish all of you a very “Happy Holi”, the festival of colours. Although this year festivities might be on low key because of fear of Corona Virus.
On this festive day, I am going to write about the grand old party of India, ie Indian National Congress. Although this party has split many times after independence, and after 1980 the Congress Party headed by Indira Gandhi got the official tag of Indian National Congress. Even after Indira Gandhi’s death, except for 6-7 years after 1991, this party is always headed by the member of Gandhi family. After the debacle in 2014 Lok Sabha election, the party is not in good position, although in some assembly elections they performed better during this period and wrested the state govt control from BJP but again they lost miserably in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
After this debacle in 2019, Rahul Gandhi who was appointed Congress President in 2017/18 resigned from this post and requested the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to elect new president. CWC tried very hard to find a consensus candidate for this post but were not successful. So in the end they fell back on member of Gandhi family, and requested Sonia Gandhi to be the interim president of the party till suitable person is found. Even after 6 months no congressmen is talking about the issue of Presidentship of the party.
If you ask any management student he/she will say that simple management principle is : Lead, follow or get out of the way. It is not clear which of these is being followed by Rahul Gandhi, because he still acts as top most leader of the party without any designation tag. And his indecision is harming the country’s main opposition party.
Even after 6 months the party is still to ratify Sonia’s appointment ( which as per party’s constitution is unconstitutional, as there is no provision for provisional/interim president.)
Once Rahul Gandhi gave a statement that ‘Power is a poison’, but still he is not giving up the same.
Generally the Plenary session of Congress happens after 3 years and last one took place in 2018. There are rumours in political circle that plenary session might be advanced so that congressmen could once again orchestrate a “ Bring Back Rahul and save nation” type of campaign so that once again he succumbs and becomes Congress president, a post occupied by his father, mother, grandmother, grand father and great grandfather. The moot point is all these individuals were strong minded, who left their own mark on the Congress party, and gave it the direction. But the problem with Rahul is that no one knows what he is after.
In his last tenure as a President, at first it was all about internal democracy. So the party’s organisation was told that it must hold primaries where the people who get the most votes of party workers would be selected as party candidates in the next election, whenever it was held. But did this plan work—definitely a big NO. Most of the people who won these primaries were sons/daughters of Congress leaders. As the congress leaders who were second or third generation of congressmen, they enjoyed loyalty and extended political patronage, so for them losing primaries were losing the family title. The reality was those who won the primaries were given tickets but majority of them lost the elections miserably.
Secondly at present there are 3 power centres in the Congress and they Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in future you may see even Robert Vadra.
Now what about party’s ideology should it be Secularism or Socialism, or even bit of both. Whatever the ideology maybe, but the fact is they need a strong leader who can counter PM Narendra Modi.
Now Rahul says he is out of it all, but is he? The fact is persons handpicked by him are advisors to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. His aides continues to have say in crucial appointments. But even Sonia’s loyalists are also doing the same. In the end it leads to party workers getting confused, and they wonder who is calling the shot.
Next problem is that even leaders are started each other’s leg pulling, when Jairam Ramesh says an Opposition party must appreciate decisions taken by the govt that it thinks are in public interest, then immediately Kapil Sibal and Veerappa Moily contradict. When Milind Deora praises Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for its fiscal prudence, Ajay Maken catches him by throat and tells him to leave the party. Similarly P Chidambaram is told by Sharmishtha Mukherjee , not to gloat over AAP’s victory in Delhi state elections.
With the results that ordinary congressmen is left wondering, what is party’s brief on any issue. But the fact is, for the Congress, the family is the final court of appeal, the first among unequals.
If there is no family, all leaders are equal. If all leaders are equal then anyone can lead the Congress. There is one more startling fact, whenever family stays in background, there is split in the party. This then leads to some unseen facts that one of the most important political force in the country can only run by one family. Most of the people off the camera say that because the money/congress funds are controlled by the family, so they control the party also. At the present time family is not ready to divest itself from the responsibility.
On the contrary BJP is thinking whether it is time take the game to one step higher ahead of 2024, and take it from battle of individuals to battle of ideology and ideas. And the fact is Congress is neither clear about individuals not about ideas.
Awaiting your views/comments/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
10th March 2020.
R. N. Mungale.
It is pathetic that the Grand Old Party is in such disarray.