At such a time, general all-purpose artificial intelligence would have helped the Congress. A chip embedded in Congress leaders would have told them, made them aware – conscious – that a major section of the electorate did not vote for the Congress because they perceived a leadership deficit in the Congress, especially when the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi ran a very successful presidential-style election campaign.

That said the Congress is actually immune to leadership deficit because leadership in the Congress is confined to a limited gene pool, a single family. And when a particular ‘heir’ turns out to be incompetent, incapable of catching the imagination of the people despite not lacking in good intentions, it does not help the party. Rahul Gandhi lost by going too much after the Chowkidar, and that with the 'Chor' sobriquet.

The Congress proved it post-debacle that it’s not a party of self-reflection and introspection. The Congress Working Committee did neither of that when it took up what it called “taking stock.” Rahul Gandhi offered to resign and at first it was like he hadn’t “so far made the offer” and then it was conveyed to the media by stone-faced Congress leaders that in one-voice the CWC had put all its trust in Rahul Gandhi and there was no way his resignation offer would be considered.

So, there will be no change in the Congress leadership and it will go on as if nothing much happened. It’s kind of like ‘Who Killed Jessica?’ but nobody wants to point the finger at the person brandishing the gun still in the room. The CWC is a closed group of self-restraining Congress satraps, their present and their future bound to that one family. Unfortunately for them, Rahul Gandhi is that “heir” from the gene pool who has does not have the “stuff” in him and Sonia Gandhi refuses to see the writing on the wall.

What’s more, the timing of launching Priyanka Gandhi was probably the most catastrophic. No matter how much her charisma and how Indira-like her persona, Priyanka would have failed to make any difference to the outcome, such was force of the Modi wave, re-designated 'tsunami'. Now, to re-launch Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at a later date will be all the more difficult. Modi will have to do really awful bad in the next five years for the Congress to think of making a comeback in 2024, by when the party will be the longest period out of power.

If Rahul Gandhi cannot deliver, and so cannot Priyanka because Rahul’s not out of the way, how long before the next heir in line comes of age? And the next heir can only be a Gandhi–Vadra! Right now a Vadra doesn’t look like the best positioned to catch the imagination of the people of India in a positive manner. Besides, the BJP – particularly Narendra Modi and Amit Shah – is sworn to see the end of dynasty.

The attacks on ‘Gandhi-Vadra’ by whatever means will be relentless and there will be no let up. But if a Gandhi-Vadra is not heading the Congress, the party will not take that big a hit as it will if a Gandhi-Vadra is heading the party. Why has not the party thought about that and can the party at the same time build on wherever it is pitted directly against the BJP? The Congress is still the major opposition to the BJP in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

And, according to certain data, the Congress still has a following of 20% of the electorate. The Congress should ask itself why there has been an erosion in its base and what will it take to woo back those who lost confidence in the party? It will have to pick up issues that resonate with its base. One of them has been presented to it by Narendra Modi himself – secularism! In his victory speech, Modi said secularism was more or less dead. If so, the Congress should keep reminding Modi and the BJP that secularism is very alive and kicking.

In fact, there cannot be a more potent issue than secularism for the Congress to rebuild on, revive it and revive with it. Modi made his “secularism is dead” pitch just after taking a bow before a copy of the Constitution on India in the Central Hall of Parliament. Secularism in India means equal treatment of all religions by the State. And the Preamble to the Constitution asserts that India is a secular nation. The BJP and Modi, no matter how hard they try, cannot maintain equidistance from all religions. That is their Achilles Heel. (IPA Service)