The Congress is in terminal decline. It is surprising that the leadership, or what passes for it these days, does not notice the flood of bad news emanating from various corners of the country.
In the past few days, several senior leaders have raised the banner of revolt, some threatening to leave to form their own parties; others have already left, while still some others are in the process of leaving.
Yet, Rahul Gandhi seems to believe as if god is in his heaven and everything is alright with his Congress. It is not. In Mumbai, a long-time Gandhi family loyalist Gurudas Kamat was so disgusted with the goings-on under the rabid Sainik-turned-Congressman Sanjay Nirupam, who now controls the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee, that he has quit the party. His followers have threatened to follow him out of the party if Kamat is not persuaded to withdraw his resignation.
Nirupam is said to have marginalized a section of the party which was loyal to Kamat. Apparently, in league with the party observer, another turncoat, this time a socialist-turned-Congressman, Mohan Prakash, Nirupam has marginalized old-timers, thus causing a lot of resentment in the ranks. Kamat’s resignation reflects the growing frustration in the party and shows how Congressmen see a bleak future if things were to go on as at present.
With the civic polls only a few months away, the Mumbai Congress is in for tough times unless the high command moves in to check the rot. A couple of days earlier, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi threatened to float his own party. In normal times, Jogi’s exit would have been a matter for celebration, given his rotten record in power and a string of scandals in which he and his son figured prominently.
But if he has succeeded in making it appear as if it is a great loss for the party it only indicates the poor State the Congress has fallen into under the Crown Prince. Even someone like Jogi, with a terrible reputation can make it sound as if the Congress will be poorer with his exit. There in Tripura, the controversial decision by the party high command to align with the Marxists for the recent West Bengal poll has virtually caused the decimation of the State legislature party, with six Congress MLAs quitting to join the Trinamool Congress. A day earlier, another Congress MLA had joined the CPI(M).
The Congress is now left with only three MLAs, including the one who heads the state unit. Again, in Meghalaya the party MLAs are up in arms against the authoritarian ways of Chief Minister Mukul Sangma. With the BJP winning in the neighbouring Assam, the party fears that the Sangma Government could soon be destabilized if urgent correctives are not taken, but the dissidents are determined on the replacement of Sangma.
There is unrest in other State units as well, with the on-going biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha emboldening dissidents to extract their price. Party nominees in Uttarakhand, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka etc., are engaged in tough contests, thanks to the threat of poaching by the non-Congress parties and a growing resentment against ‘outsiders’ being fielded by the Congress.
When all is said and done, the widespread sign of unrest in the Congress ranks indicates a lack of faith in the party leadership, the feeling that it cannot win elections. The wave of dissidence sweeping through the party was accentuated sharply by the humiliating rebuff to the Congress in the recent State Assembly polls.
Eventually, what seems to matter to Congressmen is the ability of their leader to win them elections. A Rahul Gandhi sans an electoral pull, sans any charisma cannot hope to keep his flock together. In the absence of any ideological glue, all that binds together a set of people under a common banner is the ability of a leader to win elections. If the Gandhis are no longer vote-catchers, there will be no stopping further desertions from the party.
Besides, the refusal of the Gandhis to reorganize the party structures to give representation to fresh blood, to able and young leaders in various state units is also a major cause for the disarray in its ranks. But, as of now, there is nothing to show that the Gandhis are even aware of the seriousness of the problem that afflicts the once great Congress Party. Which is such a pity since a strong opposition is a necessity in any healthy democratic system.
