The more India changes, the more the Congress remains the same. Sunday’s mega rally against price rise at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan turned out to be nothing more than a cheerleading exercise for Rahul Gandhi, as leader after leader extolled him and urged party workers to strengthen his hands. The Congress MP from Wayanad has time and again refused to assume the leadership mantle but the party’s inherently sycophantic culture cannot look beyond the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. At Sunday’s “mehngai par halla bol” rally, Rahul Gandhi reiterated his oft-repeated diatribe against the RSS-BJP, crony capitalism and the atmosphere of hate and fear that pervades the country. There were no signs that the Congress is preparing to face the BJP juggernaut with any seriousness of purpose. To combat the saffron party’s impressive electoral machinery, the Congress can only trot out the tired formula of a padayatra around the country, even while skipping several crucial states. The Bharat Jodo Yatra, as the exercise has been dubbed, will take a few months to crisscross the country, time that should be used to firm up a strategy against the BJP and arrive at an Opposition consensus on taking on the saffron party. The general election is less than two years away but the Congress appears far from ready, mired as it is in organisational elections that should have been completed a long time ago.
The drift in the party has triggered an exodus of senior leaders but two electoral routs in 2014 and 2019 have prompted no introspection and the Congress appears content to maintain status quo. How else does one explain the leadership vacuum in the party? Rahul Gandhi has refused to become party president but continues to take key decisions. The anomaly in an ordinary MP vetting all appointments, taking policy decisions and leading an important padayatra appears to strike nobody in the party. The Congress faces a crucial test as it ostensibly heads for an election to the party president’s post. There is little doubt that a Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist will contest the poll but some leaders of the G-23 rebel grouping may also throw their hats in the ring. Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari have already cast doubts on the fairness of the poll process and have called for the electoral rolls to be made public. It is therefore critical that the election is conducted with utmost transparency so that the charge of parivarvad that Prime Minister Narendra Modi often levels can be blunted. Credibility is the key for the Congress to survive the battle of 2024.
Award rejected & another ‘blunder’
Former Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja’s refusal to accept the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award, for her ‘commitment and service’ during the Nipah and Covid outbreaks in the state, at the behest of the CPI-M leadership, has raked up memories of the party’s ‘historical blunder’ in turning down the prime ministership for veteran leader Jyoti Basu more than two decades ago. The dogmatic core of the CPI-M then ruled that no party member could head a coalition government that would not be able to implement Marxist programmes. In Shailaja’s case, the party’s explanation is that Magsaysay, former Filipino President, was a staunch anti-communist who attacked Communist guerrillas and accepting an award in his name would backfire for the CPI-M. It was also averred that improvement in Kerala’s health sector was a collective effort and no single individual could be credited for it. It is ironic that Shailaja last year accepted the Open Society Prize awarded by the Central European University, founded by George Soros, who played a key role in dismantling Communism in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s.The reason for the CPI-M taking this decision seems to be complex and multi-layered. The award would certainly highlight the glaring omission of Shailaja from Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s cabinet in its second innings despite having received global accolades for her handling of the pandemic. Though there were demands to retain her, the party refused on the grounds that barring Vijayan himself new leaders should get a shot at ministership. Among murmurs that the CM was reluctant to allow anyone to upstage him, there was also genuine regret that Kerala had missed an opportunity to shine on the world stage.The charge of misogyny that has haunted the CPI-M is only reinforced by such decisions. K R Gowri, the best chief minister Kerala never had, was a prime example of the party’s inherent orthodoxy and misogyny, marginalised as she was despite her administrative abilities. That there are all-out efforts to prevent Shailaja’s ascendancy in the party hierarchy is quite evident. While the Left parties speak of women’s empowerment, there is little change on the ground with only token representation of women in important party organisations. The Left parties are the strongest votaries of the women’s reservation Bill but representation for women in their internal organisation is still woefully inadequate.
