Congress needs an urgent dose of democracy

A bitter pill for Gandhis, but vital for party’s survival

Every day brings news from some part or the other of the country of a step back or decline of the Congress and signs of the shrinkage of the party’s strength and influence in every state. The Congress, which was the biggest political party in the country and has great traditions of popular mobilisation and governance, seems to be reducing itself to a historical relic, unable to relate to the present and unsure of the future. It has governments in only three states and none of them rules in peace with itself. In Punjab, it created a crisis for itself, destabilising its own government and triggering a chain of events that exposed the poor judgement and management skills of the leadership. There is trouble in other states, too, and it may not be long before it erupts, damaging those governments and hurting the party.

The Congress has no presence in the legislatures of many states. In a big state like West Bengal, it has no member in the state Assembly, and in others like UP and Bihar, its numbers can be counted on the fingers. The party’s leaders, members and supporters are leaving in hordes and joining other parties. It lost many senior leaders to the BJP in the past several months, and there is migration to the Trinamool Congress, as in Meghalaya and Goa, and to other parties in recent weeks. Its strategies and alliances have failed in elections, and allies consider it a drag on them. Organisational weakness is aggravated by ideological confusion and its inability for introspection and self-analysis. It has not been responsive to criticism and suggestions for change from within, as the experience of 23 leaders who wrote a letter to the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi has shown.

Sonia Gandhi’s leadership, however much it may have helped the party in the past, has shown itself to be unable to strengthen and lift the party from its present straits or even to hold it together. None of the leaders of the party at any level has any democratic legitimacy and credentials to act on behalf of it. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi take major decisions, as seen in states like Punjab, though they do not hold any elected positions in the party. Leaders who claim to represent the party without authority, from Sonia Gandhi down to the lowest strata, should leave their sinecures and give way to new leaders through elections. What the Congress needs first and foremost is an infusion of democracy, which will cleanse it and help to rejuvenate it. It is bitter medicine, but the party will not be able to keep itself alive if it refuses to take it.