The 2014 General Election was proof enough that the average Indian voter had become sick and tired of a corrupt and inefficient Congress-led UPA government at Delhi. That vote catapulted Narendra Modi, an unknown entity outside Gujarat state, to the national political play ground. It was not as if the BJP had a strong organizational base everywhere across the country. No one can claim the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh possesses the ability and wherewithal to make major political inroads through the electoral politics. In reality, that is a socio religious organization that does not have political clout except within the BJP. It is the people who loathed not only those terrible individuals within the Congress but also detested those cow belt leaders and political outfits who fooled around and depended on caste for political existence. The same people had tolerated a person like Manmohan Singh who was incapable of speaking up for himself or standing up for any ideas, for a whole decade. Those 10 long years of utter mismanagement made the people rethink. They searched and the only alternative available was in the flamboyant and smooth talking Narendra Damodardas Modi. The vote in 2014 can, thus, be termed as more of anti Congress than pro BJP. That situation was changed in 2019 when people trusted Modi and believed he could deliver so have given him time. They had done the same for Manmohan Singh after he made the US-India Nuclear Treaty drama in 2009, the trust that he could not hold or re-ignite in 2014.
Now, there might be signs of change in the Congress which seems to have been pulverized by its own mistakes of the past. Indications on Sunday, in what was seen as a build-up for rejuvenation of the Congress party, were that a consensus is emerging for a change of leadership. Word spread that Sonia Gandhi is in a mood to discuss options or proposals for her replacement for the presidential post that she held on an interim one-year period after her son, Rahul Gandhi, relinquished the party’s top post after the last electoral debacle. The party’s top policy-making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is set to meet on Monday, a fortnight after her present term ended. Two options are apparent. One, Rahul Gandhi gets back to the post which possibly is unlikely. Two, of a non-Gandhi family face leading the grand old party as the official president.
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The second option was precisely and loudly what Rahul Gandhi had proposed and the leadership rejected a year ago. A lack of readiness for this, and a false hope by elders that Sonia Gandhi could still lead the party effectively, had held back efforts at revitalization of the Congress ever since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The LS polls had sent the party packing from the Hindi belt and from most other states. Even in Maharashtra, where it held fort for long, the party is today faced with a shameful scenario of being the junior third partner in government, below two regional entities. Many in the Congress began getting worried that their own political survival was at stake. Then came shocks from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
This hopelessness, probably, has given birth to a new spirit, as reflected in the taunts on leadership by former party spokesperson Sanjay Jha and others. What they sought from the leadership was a reconciliation of the situation. Those like Kapil Sibal called for ‘reforms’ for the party, Shashi Tharoor proposed an elected leadership. However, it must be kept in mind that the likes of Jha, Sibal or Tharoor are all complete empty vessels. They do not possess any political weight or are not known as persons of any ideological convictions. While their opinions might sound timely, these individuals are not competent to achieve any political goal as people can never trust them because of their past activities. On the other hand, Congress leaders like Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid are openly batting to retain the Gandhi name as the leader of the party.
The Congress ‘culture’ is known to everyone in this country. Undoubtedly, every democracy deserves a strong, determined and intelligent Opposition to hold the balance in any country. India is no exception. Yet those who populate the Congress, like every other political outfit in this country, can never be expected to speak the bitter truths when the time comes. It is usually lightweights like Tharoor or Jha or Sibal who flutter around and very gently vanish from the scene.
With Priyanka Gandhi now backing Rahul Gandhi in his original call for an outsider as party chief, it might seem as if the die is cast. Sonia Gandhi’s opening up followed on Sunday. Put together, the chimes are for a new way forward.
The First Family in the party, or the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, is a pale shadow of its former self, having undergone tectonic shocks one after another. Sonia Gandhi might have had her strengths while her weaknesses were well-known. It is primarily her incapability to understand the basic Indian ethos that deprived her of leadership qualities. Of course, not everyone is born a leader! It is this unIndianness of Sonia that created the atmosphere which brought in the ‘nationalist’ Sangh Parivar in a powerful mode on the political firmament. That situation creates leaders and a strategist is a known fact. The 2014 situation created a strategist like Narendra Modi adding punch to the BJP’s push. Sonia Gandhi should have realized that she was no more the answer to Saffron offensives as her feelings for India can never be the same as someone belonging to the soil. The stigma of corruption of the UPA terms did dent her image but the bigger damage to the Congress was the corrosion from within. That made it look and feel like a superficial party, distanced from the people and their emotions.
Even with a new leader, revival of the Congress party is easier said than done, considering the depths to which it has sunk in recent years from what was a behemoth of the post-Independence years. While many thought it was heading for a dead end, here comes an iota of hope and some fresh energy through a push to save the party and its large army of workers and leaders from extinction.
The Congress party had occasions to have those outside the Nehru family as president, as in the case of DK Baruah and later Sitaram Kesari. Both could not stand on their own, proved to be weaklings, and the Family proved to be the only glue that could keep the Congress flock together.
Clearly, having gone through a bad patch, the Congress leadership, or the Family, is willing to opt for change. If the party accepts transition, good for it. It will also be good for the nation and good for the cause of democracy. The Congress should try for party legacy, which should keep it in good stead through generations. The weak positioning of the Opposition in national politics is detrimental to a healthy democracy. But, who can lead the Congress as of now, is a big puzzle.
