Analysis of ailing Congress party. Party still needs old guards as Rahul Gandhi’s young brigade is easily poachable by BJP as seen in MP and Rajasthan
By Abdulhafiz Lakhani. New Delhi
Close on the heels of Rajasthan’s political tug of war, Congress Central leadership looks very weak, mediocre and very far from reality. On other hand, BJP has imposing and formidable leaders like Narendra Modi and Amit Shah with very brute majority in the Parliament. Even now new President J.P.Nadda is calling the shot and plays his own politics on BJP’s political national turf.
Gandhi Scion and former President of Congress Party Rahul Gandhi despite series of problems in the party still favours his trusted leader like Venugopal, a general secretary of Party. Venugopal is in many committes of Party. He is believed to be close to Rahul Gandhi.
The tenure as an acting President of Sonia Gandhi will be completed on 10th August, 2020. Though there are demand from some quarters to bring back Rahul Gandhi as the president of Party. But Venugopal is still not very active on this issue. Some very senior leaders are not with him. Still Rahul keep Venugopal very close to him.
In past, senior Most leader Ahmed Patel was eye and ear of the party. He was most powerful man and had managed to neatly carve of niche in the party with Gandhi family. Patel was the political secretary to then Congress President Sonia Gandhi from 2001 to 2017. Now, though he is treasurer of party but at present he keeps very low profile.
As the country’s political discourse has been dominated by nationalism and Hindu-centric policies, many also worry that the weakness of Congress, which traditionally has championed minorities, harms India’s democracy more broadly.
It was one of the most public expressions yet of resentment within Congress that the party is failing to make room for a younger group of leaders to emerge. The upshot is that Modi’s party is stronger than ever.Gilles Verniers, an assistant professor of political science at Ashoka University, said Congress has failed to give incentives to officials to stick with the party, leading some to “seek greener pastures.” In recent years, dozens of senior Congress leaders have left the party, fed up with a lack of visionary leadership.
Modi’s BJP has seized on the turmoil, steadily undermining Congress in the few states that it still controls. In Madhya Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, another Congress star who was close to the Gandhis and came from a long line of princes, defected to the BJP in March, causing Congress to lose its fragile hold on the state government.
India has a long history of power grabs and high-level defections, and local news outlets have published accounts from unnamed BJP officials in Rajasthan describing a political coup attempt gone awry, with a disgruntled Pilot at its center.
Rajasthan is a large, politically competitive state, and home to some of India’s vital heritage and cultural sites. Congress controls 107 seats in the state legislature, barely enough to form a majority government. Just a few crossovers would shift the balance of power to the BJP.
Congress leaders in Rajasthan are deeply rattled. Last week, Gehlot’s government moved more than 100 elected officials into the Fairmont Hotel, a five-star resort in the city of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, hoping to prevent them from leaving for the BJP. The fear was that if the lawmakers remained at home, it would be easier to bribe or entice them to defect.
The decline of Congress accelerated last year, when Rahul Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, resigned from his post as president after a humiliating general election defeat against Modi.
Many Indians see the Congress party as a protector of the nation’s founding secular values, but far too beholden to the Gandhis, who are often perceived as a symbol of India’s Anglicized upper class. Gandhi, his mother, Sonia, who assumed the role of interim president, and his sister, Priyanka, all still call the party’s shots.
Modi continually hammers Congress for being a family dynasty, and his party’s embrace of a brawny Hindu nationalism that emphasizes India’s Hindu heritage has tracked well with voters.
Rasheed Kidwai, a former journalist who wrote a book about Sonia Gandhi, said Congress simply could not compete. “They are going through the motions,” he said. “They are very demoralized. They don’t have any hope.”
“This was a badly handled show and one more state could slip out of Congress’ hands,” said Neerja Chowdhury, a political analyst in New Delhi. “It is a failure of national leadership.
The balance between senior and young leaders in the grand old party- Congress is the need of hour. Otherwise, Party will be finished and democracy will be mobocracy under Hindu bigots.
On the condition of not to disclose his name, a Former Congress MP, said I’m actually feeling rather dismayed by our senior leaders. They must come up. Most of them, those who are in Rajya Sabha, those who have been former Chief Ministers, even some of our current CMs who are very senior, I think it is time for them to come up and go the extra mile for their party. There is Amarinder Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath…why don’t they get together, get other people around? There is (A K) Antony, (P) Chidambaram, Salman (Khurshid), (Ahmed) Patel…all of them have done great for the Congress. They are in the evening of their politics, they probably have another four or five years to go. I think this is a time for them to intellectually contribute…they can go into the process of leadership selection, either at the centre or in states or elsewhere,” he added.
Meanwhile, former Delhi CM Sheila Dixit’s son and ex- MP Sandeep Dixit demanded to appoint full time President of Party. He also added that it is high time to take decision. Congress working committe must find the solution of leaders crisis. He alleged that senior leaders of party of failing to find a new full time President even after many months are scared who will bell the cat?
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India based website)
