Electorally, 2020 has been a (yet another) bad year for the Congress. Out for a duck in the Delhi assembly elections, it did poorly in Bihar, came a cropper in the byelections and in the Hyderabad municipal elections. This is hardly surprising, given that its strategy in recent years consists of riding on the shoulders of alliance partners or piggy-backing on agitations by interest groups.
So, as the year draws to a close, the question of what the Congress stands for and who it represents remains unanswered, given its flip-flop on issues, lack of introspection and exclusive focus on Modi-bashing. Its position on economic reforms and social issues remains unclear, both to the public and party workers.
Haphazard attempts
For instance, the party has hitched its wagon to the protest against agricultural reforms in a haphazard attempt to gain political traction. Having effectively done a volte face on the issue, the Congress now finds itself on the defensive, attempting to justify its change of heart. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understandably silent on the subject.
A couple of decades ago, the Congress would have kept the ruling party on its toes, with grassroots mobilisation on issues such as unemployment, failure of public delivery systems and land acquisition policies. Today, it is reduced to sporadically attacking the government on social media and in press briefings.
Clearly, the Congress needs to turn back the clock and return to the basics. It must find issues that resonate with the public and formulate clear-cut policies for the benefit of party workers who are its interface with voters. As a national party, it can ill-afford to take different stands in different states.
The 'minority question' continues to plague the Congress. On the one hand, it challenged the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and supported the Shaheen Baug protestors, on the other, it allied with a hyper-nativist and 'Hindu nationalist' outfit – the Shiv Sena - in Maharashtra. Rahul Gandhi's 'temple run' was smart politics, but attracted trenchant criticism from the party's left-leaning supporters. The resulting ideological and political confusion has left party workers scratching their heads. As a result, the inexorable downward slide continues.
Ill-considered alliances
Blindly entering into political alliances without taking grassroots workers into confidence has been a feature of Congress strategy in recent years. The tie-up with the Samajwadi Party for the UP assembly elections in 2017 reduced the Congress to just 7 seats of the 105 it contested, from 28 in the previous assembly. Its partner, the SP, was also decimated, from to 224 to 47 seats. Given their historical rivalry, it was too much to expect that workers of both parties would be able to bury the hatchet and coordinate at the ground level.
In 2018, the Praja Kutami - a grand alliance of the Congress, TDP, CPI & Telangana Jana Samithi – likewise came to grief in the Telangana assembly elections. The Congress, which was able to form two governments at the Centre (2004 and 2009) thanks to an undivided Andhra Pradesh, was reduced to just 19 seats in a 119-member house. The TDP became irrelevant. Thus, the ill-thought out and transparently opportunistic alliances have not served the interests of the Congress or those of its allies.
In Bihar, the Congress failed to make a realistic assessment of its strength on the ground and opted for 70 seats, but left the entire burden of the campaign to RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav. He put in a heroic effort, while Rahul Gandhi scooted to Shimla. The Congress wound up with 19 seats, thereby ensuring the NDA retained power in the state, prompting an RJD spokesperson to inveigh against Gandhi for 'picnicking' instead of campaigning.
Leadership crisis
The same attitude was evident last year in Maharashtra, when the NCP's Sharad Pawar took charge of the campaign, while the Congress was apparently comatose after high-profile defections. Subsequently, he shaped the post-electoral alliance with the Shiv Sena and the Congress tamely followed where he led.
The leadership crisis in the Congress has made it overly dependent on outside support. A pro-active, strong high command would have created space for new ideas and experiments such as merit-based mobility and outreach programmes. Only by experimenting can the Congress understand what works and avoid disasters like the 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' slogan, which had no public resonance.
The party is not a significant player in either West Bengal or UP, which gives it the latitude to try out new ideas and put new leaders in the field well before the elections. Gandhi had attempted experiments with organisational reform, the induction of new leaders and a merit-based system at one point, but wound up deploying the very people who were interested in maintaining the status quo.
If the Congress is to stand on its own and avoid knee-jerk responses, it's time to go back to the grassroots.
The writer is a senior journalist with 35 years of experience in working with major newspapers and magazines. She is now an independent writer and author.
