Wages of drift and dithering in Congress Party

Wages of drift and dithering in Congress Party

EditorialUpdated: Wednesday, June 10, 2020, 05:10 AM IST
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Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi with party leader and son Rahul Gandhi | PTI

Normal political activity was on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdown. Though the pandemic still rages, laying low large number of people daily with the deadly infection, the political class seems to have returned to its usual fun and games. Last week, the Aya Ram Gaya Ram syndrome yet again infected the Congress Party in Gujarat ahead of the Rajya Sabha poll slated for June 19. Three of its MLAs resigned from the Assembly, thus making it further difficult for the Congress to win more than a single seat from the four which are up for grabs.

On the other hand, the BJP was now certain to win the other three seats. The party needs two more ‘floating’ votes to make certain the victory of its third candidate while the Congress needs four votes for its second candidate to win. The Congress has lost a total of 12 MLAs since the Assembly poll in 2017. Following the resignation of the three MLAs last week and fearing further poaching, the party moved 65 MLAs to various resorts in Gujarat and the neighbouring Congress-ruled Rajasthan. Factionalism in the Gujarat Congress and a continuing drift in the central unit, with a question mark hanging over Rahul Gandhi’s return as the party chief to replace the ailing working president, Sonia Gandhi, has demoralised the rank and file. Despite arranging to remain in news thanks to social media posts, both Rahul and sister, Priyanka Vadra, have failed to inspire confidence in their ability to regroup and reenergise the Congress. It is symptomatic of the drift that the other day one of its national spokespersons relied on the columns of a daily newspaper to bemoan the lack of internal democracy and a paralysing confusion over the leadership question. Instead of appreciating the mental agony of its spokesperson, who has valiantly defended numerous acts of omissions and commission of the leadership on television for years, the reaction was to treat him as an outcast. Immediately, party colleagues tried to distance themselves from him with one leader who had earlier penned a newspaper column with him disowning him outright.

Despite their loss of grip over the popular mood, despite their failure to create a strong and viable grassroots organisation, the Gandhi family has managed to rule the roast in the Congress by sheer default, exploiting the unwillingness and inability of senior leaders to work together. As a result, the Gandhis continue to retain their vice-like grip over whatever remains of the once-mighty party. Revival and rejuvenation of the party, as the impugned party spokesman suggested, would take more than it merely freeing itself from the little finger of the Gandhis. But that necessarily has to be the starting point if the Congress is to regain its relevance in the national polity.

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