Within three days of humiliating defeats in the Assembly polls to five states, the interim president of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, convened the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, to review the situation. Also present in the meeting were three top leaders from the rebel group of 23 or G23. It was unprecedented since the party has never been this prompt to hold such meetings in the face of either electoral defeats, a dime a dozen in the recent past, or internal squabbles.
It triggered hope that a quick review would logically follow and either remedial measures initiated or, at least, a roadmap towards that direction decided. But that was too much to ask from a Congress culture steeped in maintaining the status quo, which brushed the problems under the carpet and passed a customary resolution reposing full faith in the current leadership. Thus, the party will have to wait another day for an overhaul and renaissance.
If reports that an open debate was allowed during the over four-hour-long meeting are accurate, it is also an unprecedented development. In the ordinary course, such exchange of views has become extinct in political parties in India and more so in the Congress. Party strategists might have planned this after the quick convening of the CWC to defang the three representatives of the G23, namely its leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma and party general secretary Mukul Wasnik—all of whom were known for their proximity to the Gandhi family and are its beneficiaries.
What more the CWC could have done at this juncture other than a free-wheeling debate and laying thrust on meeting the August 2022 deadline for electing a new party president? More so after Sonia Gandhi declared that she and her children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, were ready to "make any sacrifice" in the party's interest, thereby hinting at resignations.
Indeed, this was an opportunity for the G23 leaders to strike or raise the heat. Nothing of the sort happened. Instead, they joined the chorus rejecting Sonia Gandhi's offer and went a step ahead and stated that they had never questioned her leadership while remaining non-committal about the Gandhi siblings.
One hopes they will pick up the gauntlet when elections to elect the party president are held. A national political party without a full-fledged president for over two years is certainly not acceptable. This situation has worsened since Rahul Gandhi is the de-facto chief of the party while refusing to accept the responsibility. Sonia Gandhi could have, in the CWC, decided to step down and appoint a new interim president, no matter even a loyalist, with an advisory committee to oversee the organisational elections. This would have silenced the Gandhi family's and also the party's critics within and outside the AICC corridors and at the same time lent a great semblance of impartialness to the impending electoral process.
It is unthinkable in the current culture of the Congress but deserved a thought. No bookish solution will help the fast plummeting party, for which time is ticking. It faces an opponent in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is resource-rich, uses technology proficiently and is led by leaders such as Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Out-of-the-box is the name of the game, packed with surprise elements and quick decision making. From the Congress perspective, quickly convening the CWC meeting falls in this category, but the meeting proceedings did not reflect this spirit.
However, one reflection came from Rahul Gandhi's observation that the party's political rivals, an apparent reference to the BJP, cannot be electorally defeated using age-old tools and the need to invent new strategies and tools. Such a diagnosis needs further exploring provided there is a will.
The question arises, who had been stopping the Congress from rediscovering itself? The answer is two-fold: the inertia that has gripped the leaders in particular with no will to work hard. The top brass took to the easiest way of status quo while many leaders adopted the more convenient approach of looking for greener pasture elsewhere.
The CWC was held in the backdrop of the party suffering a severe blow in Punjab and squandering its chances in Uttrakhand and Goa, where circumstances were favourable to unseat the incumbent BJP. Not the blame game but fixing responsibility, whosoever they might be, should have been strongly stressed in the very CWC as the beginning of a new chapter.
These seemingly baby steps could have significantly contributed to lifting the morale of the party's rank and file, but as an initiation of a new narrative. This is so because Rahul Gandhi's observation had also stressed the need to create a unique and robust narrative, particularly what the Congress has to offer if it comes to power.
Waiting for organisational elections hoping that the solution to all ills lies in having a new president is certainly not going to help. Its poll campaigns have to be matched with confidence building and conciliatory measures to shore up the Congress party's image of a divided house. The generational change cannot happen at the cost of the party's existence.
(Anil Anand is a senior journalist based in Delhi)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
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