Anil Anand
Congress is under siege. And the siege has been brilliantly plotted by BJP (read Sangh Parivar). The slogan of ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ is the fulcrum around which the plot is working and showing results. At the centre of this fulcrum is the Nehru-Gandhi legacy or to be more precise the Gandhi family.
So, but natural any rival strategy would veer around weakening the family if the dream of ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ is to be achieved. This is precisely what the saffron brigade is currently doing. This situation is the Congress’ own making and has lot to do with the party’s monolithic structure bereft of inner party democracy and culture of total distrust at all levels.
The BJP has very rightly identified the rival’s jugular vein which is the Gandhi family, being fully aware that a discredited and weakened first family would help realise the dream of ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ even if that meant defeating the century old party in every election. So, the family is under attack from all sides. The deliberate attempt is to portray Mrs Sonia Gandhi and her family as the fountainheads of corruption. This is so because the allegations of corruption without any tangible proof or results sell in election as the gullible voters tend to buy the theories afloat around.
This is not to say that the Congress is without its set of failures and fault-lines which have brought the party to current situation of hopelessness. The perceptions about Congress are getting even stronger with the party hardly showing any signs of fighting back. The silence and lack of will to fight back in the face of series of scams had cost the UPA-II Government dearly and it also did-in the Congress in Lok Sabha elections.
An aggressive and to-the-point former Defence Minister A K Antony was a treat to hear when he interjected in a debate on Augusta chopper scam in Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon Session of Parliament. This interjection has to be studied in the light of his statement on becoming the Minister that he would maintain a studied silence as Defence Minister come what may. Being a politician of old-school-of-thought logically he was perfectly right since the sensitive portfolio he was holding left no space for public talk. But it was absolutely illogical given the new culture of perceptive electoral politics being played with perfection by the BJP and others also adopting the trend due its fast delivery system.
Proverbially silence is considered as a sign of guilt. Silence coupled with a section of very hostile and influential media (read news channels) has become a deadly combo for the beleaguered Congress till its leadership decides to break the shackles. The party chief Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s aggressive reaction on the NDA Government’s latest expose, connecting her son-in-law with another alleged property scam extending to London, is a perfect case study for her and the party in how to counter perceptions.
A counterfoil would be successful if the Congress rank and file particularly the galaxy of leadership basking under the glory of Gandhi family consider any attack on the family as an attack on the party. This unfortunately is not the case right now. The blame does not entirely lie on the rank and file but also the family. It has much more to do with the culture of red-tapism and feudalism in which the Congress is strongly entrenched than anything else.
The vested interest within the Congress has thrived and prospered due to this culture without ever trying to repay the party at crucial moments. The end result, as repeatedly witnessed, is that the Gandhi family is perceived to be fighting a lonely battle whenever under fire from political adversaries. Such a situation befittingly suits the BJP’s ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ campaign as ultimate portrayal is the weakened Gandhi family.
The solution to many ills plaguing the Congress lies in its total overhauling and gradual restoration of inner party democracy. The vested interest which would strongly oppose any such move should be systematically shown the place. It is only possible through infusing new blood in the organisation and at the same time making the old-guard realise the need to become mentors and educators to rebuild the organisation that had given them everything.
Both Congress president and vice-president Mr Rahul Gandhi must realise that the time to bask in the past glory has vanished and that they are confronted with a very aggressive if not a formidable political rival. The path ahead lies in strengthening the tried and tested edifice and further build upon it suiting the current needs.
The secret for this lies in being decisive. The vested interest has the knack, as seen in the past, to scare away the decisive tendencies whenever attempted. But there is no other way but to be decisive with a calibrated approach. Here lies a window of an opportunity for Gandhi, of course backed by his mother, to show some sparks. Impulse is certainly not the answer as has been experienced in the recent past. The solution lies in being firm and deft with an element of political flexibility till the time the rot is checked.
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