Kalyani Shankar
Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s comeback as the party chief recently might have shut up the young and old in the party about who should replace Rahul Gandhi, but she has her task cut out. It is more than a fortnight since she took over. It is not as if Sonia does not know the problems and challenges ahead as she has been the president of the party for almost two decades and has seen its highs and lows. In 1998, she took over the party when it was at its lowest ebb with many Congress leaders leaving the party, but she was able to arrest the tendency. She even brought the party back to power in 2004 and also in 2009. Once again Sonia has taken the leadership when the party is totally demoralized after its humiliating defeat in the 2019 polls and once again there is erosion of party workers and leaders. But 2019 is not 1998.
The Gandhis have deftly resolved the leadership issue albeit temporarily. The old guard propping up some senior leader and the younger leaders suggesting names like Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia were shut up after Sonia came back stifling the debate about who should succeed Rahul. Sonia Gandhi’s return provided them with relief as it smothered whatever chances of any non-Gandhi becoming president.
The second important thing for Sonia would be the growing erosion and indiscipline in the party. On August 18, former Haryana chief minister B.S. Hooda gave an ultimatum that unless he was made the chief of the party unit in the state, he would explore other options. The impressive rally was a show of strength. Though the leadership has not reacted, it may send a wrong signal if Hooda leaves the party now. As it is, the chances of the faction-ridden Congress party in the state is bleak. If Hooda departs at this late stage, he may not benefit but the Congress will get zero in the ensuing Assembly polls.
There is not much time left as the three states – Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand – will be going for polls later this year and Delhi early next year. Ten Congress legislators had recently shifted to the BJP in Goa. In Telangana, 12 of the 18 MLAs merged with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi. In Maharashtra, also there are defections. In Rajya Sabha, senior leaders like Sanjay Singh and Bhubaneswar Kalita resigned their membership and joined the BJP. All these do not auger well for the Congress.
The third urgent thing is to contain the discordant voices emerging from the Congress leaders on various issues. There is a division in the Congress ranks on the party’s response to key issues such as the triple talaq bill, abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu &Kashmir. Moreover, leaders like Jairam Ramesh, Abhishek Singhvi and Shashi Tharoor suggesting that the Congress should stop “demonizing” Prime Minister Narendra Modi was embarrassing to the Congress leadership (read Rahul Gandhi), which has been making personal attack on the Prime Minister. Do they perhaps mean that there is need for change of strategy or are they emboldened because of a weak leadership?
Fourthly, more than anything Sonia Gandhi has to think of organizing a brainstorming session to thrash out several issues including the reasons for the 2019 poll defeat and come up with a new strategy to take on the BJP. The party leaders should be given a chance of speaking their mind in the session. This might stop them from voicing their views in public. If the party could win even one of the three poll-bound states it will go a long way to revive the party. The recent arrest of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on INX media case also does not help the party. The BJP wants to show that the Congress leaders are corrupt.
Fifthly, the Congress should be clear about what it stands for. The earlier planks of unity and diversity popularized by Indira Gandhi have become an old concept. The secularism versus communalism also has lost its appeal as seen in the past two Lok Sabha polls. The Congress only ended up with being perceived as pro-Muslim party, which ignores the majority community. Therefore, there is every need to come up with a catchy slogan like the ‘Aam Aadmi’ as it did in 2004, to lure the voters. In fact, the Congress leadership should offer a ‘new Congress’ to the voters to attract them like the Labour party in the U. K. came up with a New Labour.”
Above all, with so much water under the bridge, is the Congress ready for a course correction? Is it ready to look back and introspect what has gone wrong? If not, it can give up hope of a revival as thing have changed, voters have changed, aspirations have changed and leadership is in transition. The defeat should be viewed as an opportunity and a new Congress should emerge out of a party conclave. (IPA)
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