The dilemma of the Congress now is to look for an appropriate model to reinvent itself. What would be that model? That precisely is the million dollar question haunting the party. It simply cannot afford to go the way it has been going since the 2014 elections. If it continues to function the same way, that is a sure sign of catastrophe.
After the shocking or rather devastating performance of the Congress in the general elections, many in BJP are reminding the party of the call of Mahatma Gandhi after Independence that Congress should be disbanded and converted into a social service organization.
This strategy of course, is an attempt to further rub salt into the wounds of the Congress, smarting under its worst consecutive defeat in the Lok Sabha elections ever since the first elections were fought in 1952 under a new Constitution. Never before in the last almost seven decades had Congress been out of power for 10 consecutive years as is the case this time with the fate of the party effectively sealed till the 2024 elections.
Despite the humiliating drubbing which it handed to Congress first in 2014 and then in 2019, BJP knows for sure that Congress is and would remain its single biggest opponent in large parts of India in the near future. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and almost every other leader of BJP targeted Congress vitriolically in the campaign simply for the reason that it still remains a force to reckon with and has the potential to bounce back in the near future. They attacked first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajeev Gandhi repeatedly to hit the morale of the party. BJP knows that Congress by default would remain a formidable political adversary in the near future and in politics, no party can be completely decimated so keep on attacking it through the idioms and symbols it identifies itself with.
The strength of Congress lies in the fact that it is the defacto Number one or Number two party in a large number of states even in the worst phase of its electoral history. It is in that position not by any extra effort but simply by default. Take for example bigger states with substantial seats in Lok Sabha like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh, Kartanataka, Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Assam where the party is either in Number one or two positions. Similarly in some other states like Maharashtra, it has a substantial presence though in these elections, the party was practically wiped out. Worldwide phenomenon shows that there is always a space for a liberal, centrist political party even when right wing politics is in full bloom as is the case in India right now.
The dilemma of the Congress now is to look for an appropriate model to reinvent itself. What would be that model? That precisely is the million dollar question haunting the party. It simply cannot afford to go the way it has been since the 2014 elections. If it continues to function the same way, that is a sure sign of catastrophe. If it continues on the same trajectory and does not make a course correction, then of course it should better listen to the advice of Mahatma Gandhi belatedly.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) which would take a stock of the defeat and post poll situation, would meet next week but given its history that would be an exercise in futility. Given the level of sycophancy in the CWC, culture of leaders drawing strength from the Gandhi family and in-built inertia, they are unlikely to come out with anything substantial. The members of CWC would still be licking their wounds post defeat to draw a roadmap for the future. Party President Rahul Gandhi is expected to offer his resignation and it would not be accepted by the CWC. That drill is set to be repeated.
But if the party has to offer any semblance of challenge to BJP in the medium to the long run, this simply won’t do. This would be like committing a political hara-kiri. I’m sure Congress would not like to do that.
Change of leadership is one part of the exercise. The party may take a call on it later on. It is for sure now that Rahul Gandhi does not have the leadership qualities even a fraction of what his principal rival Narendra Modi possesses. Repeated elections have proved it beyond doubt. But the problem is who in Congress then, if not Rahul himself.
Will Priyanka Gandhi be the panacea of all ills facing the Congress now? It is too early to say anything on that as she has to prove her mettle by emerging as a leader on her own right first. It is still a long journey for her to emerge as a distant challenger to Modi. Of course, a non-Gandhi as President of the Congress would be a distant dream for party veterans and even in that scenario, there is no proven leader with solid credentials who could readily replace Rahul anytime soon.
When Congress won Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, a section of the party felt that Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot should have been given chief ministerial responsibility, simply to groom them for bigger leadership role the future. But the status quoist mindset gripping the Congress favoured old warhorses Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlaut who certainly do not inspire the confidence of the young generation of voters. The party should admit its mistake even now and go in for a change of leadership in these two states first, simply to give a message to the youth and the younger generation of voters that dynamism would be the new norm in the party.
Besides taking a call on leadership, the biggest challenge for the grand old party would be to come out with an ideological narrative of its own, which is different from BJP. It simply cannot afford to be the B team of BJP. No one would vote for you when the A team is right in front of you.
What does Congress stand for? That will be the biggest riddle for the party to answer first. It simply can’t experiment with what it has been doing in the days preceding the 2019 polls—temple hopping, wearing janewu, rechristening into a Dattatreya gotra, abandoning causes of Muslims, tribals, poor and the underprivileged. This idea has failed to get any traction as of now, the party should realise it sooner than later. In the early parts of the last century and in the run-up to the Indian independence, Congress was an umbrella organization where all sorts of ideologies and thoughts flourished—from right wing to extreme left to the Centre. Can the Congress go back to history, learn some appropriate lessons, modify it for the current situation and see what exactly suits it in 2019, 2020, 2021 and beyond? Can it become the aspirational party of different thoughts, ideologies, castes, communities, linguistic and cultural groups? The party perhaps needs to have a brain storming session of the top leaders and others to work out this great ideological dilemma which is haunting the party in the wake of the Right resurgence in India.
When it solves the leadership tangle and its ideological moorings, Congress should then focus on new age communication techniques where it can match its adversary head on. The kind of reach which technology has now is unparalleled and communication has to be through technology and making across its point to the last person in the remotest area. Learn from your adversary BJP, learning newer strategies only helps you, copy where you can, but do it. The Nyay scheme offering Rs 72,000 per annum was great but did anyone know about it, except those who are supposed to fund it from their own pockets. The answer is No. There lies the failure of communication appropriate to this age. The wake-up call for Congress was never so loud and clear. If it still doesn’t answer to this call, it will soon be pack-up time.
