Two days after the May 23rd poll verdict, he offered to resign as Congress President, owning responsibility for the spectacular defeat of his party. But instead of acting on it immediately, Rahul Gandhi allowed generous time to the lesser leaders to try and persuade him not to leave them orphaned. But, truth be told, there was a total lack of spontaneous outpouring of grief, though parrot-like feeble voices were heard at the time for him not to take that course of action. In private, most senior leaders might have actually heaved a sigh of relief at the going of an immature party president. No ‘senior’ leader joined the chorus of mid-level courtiers.
For the record, party spokespersons continued to mutter that there was no question of his going, that ‘he was, is and will’ remain Congress President. The charade went on for weeks. But surprisingly an orchestrated show of loyalty to Rahuljee accompanied by the predictable appeal was overnight revived afresh at the weekend. Clearly, it was aimed at spotlighting his ‘principled’ decision to actually quit owning responsibility for the disastrous loss with Rahul himself falling by the wayside in his erstwhile stronghold of Amethi. On Wednesday, in a four-page statement he shed the de jure responsibility as party chief but without naming his successor.
The statement is proof that neither he nor his party has drawn the right lessons from its defeat and, therefore, is in no position to regain the peoples’ trust. Laying blame for the loss at the doorstep of the BJP, he asserted that the Modi Government had captured all institutions and yoked them to the ruling party. “We did not fight a political party in the 2019 election. Rather, we fought the entire machinery of the Indian State, every institution of which was marshaled against the Opposition…” Without looking himself in the mirror, and shifting the blame for the loss to the winners, Rahul clearly signals a mulish attitude reflecting a lingering sense of entitlement to rule over Indians. A bad workman always quarrels with his tools.
Rahul lamenting the ‘capture of power’ by Modi to weaken democratic institutions, endangering free and fair elections, and prognosticating ‘unimaginable levels of violence and pain for India,’ does sound over-the-top without offering an iota of indication as to how he envisions his party reviving itself to blunt the Modi challenge. Turgid hyperbole such as ‘every living cell in my body instinctively resists the BJP’s idea of India… because my being has always been permeated with an idea of India that is and has always been in direct conflict with theirs…’ means only two things.
One, he immediately needs to change his ghostwriter and, two, get real about the real India. Profusion of ‘love’ and ‘hare’ in the spoken political lexicon makes him look artificial, putting on a persona normal politicians, nay, ordinary people are far removed from in their everyday lives. Saffron-clad sanyasis and saints pepper their speech with such words, not pragmatic politicians engaged in bitter electoral battles.
What now? Well, it seems that the alternative plan is ready. A Manmohan Singh-like figurehead as Congress President, say, a 90-year-young Moti Lal Vora, to be assisted by a working president, say, a Sachin Pilot, might be in place soon to steer the grand old party out of its current slump. Lest you think the Family would adopt a hands-off approach, allowing the ‘working president’ a free hand to revive the party, to set its policy direction and to put in place a country-wide organisational structure, do think again.
The Gandhis will remain in control whoever might formally front the party. Period. Besides, it is futile to expect that the new leadership will be able to get rid of the deadwood that now occupies front seats in the organisational set-up, including the Congress Working Committee.
Just consider how many among the CWC members were able to win their Lok Sabha seats, with some like P Chidambaram wisely finding for themselves a sanctuary in the Rajya Sabha. Thus, Rahul Gandhi’s resignation by itself will not do anything for the renewal and rejuvenation of the GOP. A different kind of surgical strike is needed to neutralise the dead wood that permeates the Congress from top to bottom.
And then, under a new leadership, the party structures need to be energised with the infusion of fresh blood with deep grassroots contacts. To begin with, Rahul’s resignation ought to be used to retire en bloc the current crop of paper-tigers who dominate its front benches. But it remains to be seen whether his resignation only means he ceases to be the de jure head of the Congress while effectively remaining the de facto boss.
