<p>The "terminal decline" of the Congress party can only be revived by a leadership change, says historian and biographer Ram Chandra Guha, who suggests that the party's top job be handed over to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.<br /><br />Stressing that it was his "fantasy", Guha said yesterday if there was a "friendly take-over" of the party by the JD-U leader, it would be a match made in heaven.<br /><br />"For the Congress is a party without a leader and Nitish is a leader without a party," Guha said at the launch of the 10th anniversary edition of his book 'India After Gandhi'. Nitish Kumar, he held, was a "genuine" leader.<br /><br />"Like Modi, he has no family burden, but, unlike Modi, he is not a megalomaniac. He is not sectarian and focuses on gender, which is rare among Indian politicians. So there are things about Nitish that were appealing, and are appealing," he said at the function here.<br /><br />But, he said, unless the president of the Congress bestowed the post on Nitish, there "is no future for him, or for Sonia Gandhi in Indian politics".<br /><br />The 131-year old party, the columnist-author believed, could not be a major political player anymore, and could at best move from its present 44 seats in the Lok Sabha to 100.<br /><br />"Now, if they have a new leader or leadership tomorrow, things could change. Two years is a long time in politics," he added, referring to the 2019 parliamentary polls.<br /><br />He said the decline of the Congress was also "worrying", because a single party system was not "good" for democracy.<br /><br />"Single party governance made even the great democrat Jawahar Lal Nehru arrogant; it made the instinctively authoritarian Indira Gandhi even more authoritarian. So what will this do to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah is something that I have started thinking about," the author -- known for critiquing both the Left and the Right -- said.<br /><br />India had failed to emulate the stable two-party model of western democracies, Guha said, adding that the importance of two-party rivalry in states should not be undermined.<br /><br />"The three states in India which have performed well over the past 70 years, according to economic and social indicators, are Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh. And all have a relatively stable two-party system," he said.<br /><br />States where a single party ruled for long years -- he cited the case of Bengal under the Left and BJP-led Gujarat -- were a "disaster".<br /><br />"The states that have a stable two-party system do the best because the Congress keeps a check on the Communists in Kerala, the BJP on the Congress in Himachal," he said.<br /><br />The book, a revised edition of his 2007 volume published by Pan Macmillan India, has new chapters on gender, caste and the rise of the gay movement in India, among others.</p>
<p>The "terminal decline" of the Congress party can only be revived by a leadership change, says historian and biographer Ram Chandra Guha, who suggests that the party's top job be handed over to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.<br /><br />Stressing that it was his "fantasy", Guha said yesterday if there was a "friendly take-over" of the party by the JD-U leader, it would be a match made in heaven.<br /><br />"For the Congress is a party without a leader and Nitish is a leader without a party," Guha said at the launch of the 10th anniversary edition of his book 'India After Gandhi'. Nitish Kumar, he held, was a "genuine" leader.<br /><br />"Like Modi, he has no family burden, but, unlike Modi, he is not a megalomaniac. He is not sectarian and focuses on gender, which is rare among Indian politicians. So there are things about Nitish that were appealing, and are appealing," he said at the function here.<br /><br />But, he said, unless the president of the Congress bestowed the post on Nitish, there "is no future for him, or for Sonia Gandhi in Indian politics".<br /><br />The 131-year old party, the columnist-author believed, could not be a major political player anymore, and could at best move from its present 44 seats in the Lok Sabha to 100.<br /><br />"Now, if they have a new leader or leadership tomorrow, things could change. Two years is a long time in politics," he added, referring to the 2019 parliamentary polls.<br /><br />He said the decline of the Congress was also "worrying", because a single party system was not "good" for democracy.<br /><br />"Single party governance made even the great democrat Jawahar Lal Nehru arrogant; it made the instinctively authoritarian Indira Gandhi even more authoritarian. So what will this do to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah is something that I have started thinking about," the author -- known for critiquing both the Left and the Right -- said.<br /><br />India had failed to emulate the stable two-party model of western democracies, Guha said, adding that the importance of two-party rivalry in states should not be undermined.<br /><br />"The three states in India which have performed well over the past 70 years, according to economic and social indicators, are Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh. And all have a relatively stable two-party system," he said.<br /><br />States where a single party ruled for long years -- he cited the case of Bengal under the Left and BJP-led Gujarat -- were a "disaster".<br /><br />"The states that have a stable two-party system do the best because the Congress keeps a check on the Communists in Kerala, the BJP on the Congress in Himachal," he said.<br /><br />The book, a revised edition of his 2007 volume published by Pan Macmillan India, has new chapters on gender, caste and the rise of the gay movement in India, among others.</p>