Look at the way the Congress leadership has been responding to the present crisis. This is unprecedented in the history of the 73 years of Independence. India has never faced this nature of crisis where even the existence of democracy and democratic system have been at stake. The financial institutions have been ruined; economy is on systematic decline, social conflicts dominate the human relations, the number of the people living below the poverty line has been constantly on rise and sane voices are no more heard or are relevant.

Did they ever try to figure out or analyse the reason behind Narendra Modi targeting and accusing Rahul Gandhi, more than the Congress party, and accusing him of misleading the agitating farmers’. The Congress leaders must have been feeling elated at Modi taking cognisance of Rahul’s statements and tweets, but they must not construe as the gain of their leader. They ought to do some kind of introspection of this strategy of Modi. This is nothing but the part of Modi’s strategy of isolating Rahul from rest of the Congress leaders by projecting him as the only challenger. What made Modi to target Rahul when his mission has been to create a Congress mukta Bharat.

Intriguingly indeed he refrains from targeting Priyanka Gandhi. The reasons are obvious. Under his scheme Rahul would not emerge as a potential threat to his leadership. But Priyanka has got that potential. He does not intend to project Priyanka as his challenger. He knows that Rahul has antagonised whole lot of Congress leaders and in this backdrop he would not be effective in taking along the Congress party with him. The pathetic condition of the Congress is best illustrated from the fact that the party does not have a functional president for nearly a year. At a time when the Congress could have led the opposition forces and parties, the Congress leaders are helplessly watching the situation.

Yet another malaise that afflicts the party is almost all the Congress leaders, right from the national level to the state level, think themselves as the independent islands. They feel that carrying out the instructions of the central leadership would smear their prestige and image. The leadership must answer why this culture has developed. One small event is sufficient to explain. The very day after Ashok Jagtap was appointed as the Mumbai’s new Congress president he insisted that the party should contest the 2022 civic elections solo. Just before that Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had proposed that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), would fight together in all local body elections, including the Mumbai civic poll. Significantly a fortnight back the MVA had defeated the BJP in the Legislative Council polls.

It is worth mentioning that 23 letter-writers underlined the challenges: two successive general election losses and the movement of youth away from the party. They had mentioned that the party would vanquish in the Hindi heartland. At the meeting Rahul had suggested the party should prepare its workers, like soldiers in battle, to clearly understand the Congress ideology and the purpose of their fight. But it is not sure how far the leadership has moved in the direction of implementing this. The recent crisis provides the best opportunity for the Congress to intervene effectively. But from its response to the situation it gives the impression that it is clueless about what to do and how to respond.

Congress leadership has not been paying proper attention to the organisational needs is also manifest in preserving the legacy of the organisation and its failure to prevent the systemic infiltration of Gandhian institutions by the RSS over the decades. These elements denied permission to hold the Congress Working Committee meeting at the Sevagram Ashram in Wardha, Maharashtra, on October 2, 2018, the beginning of the Mahatma’s 150th year, despite the leadership’s best efforts. The trend continued with successive Congress governments in Maharashtra and the Centre showing no interest in reclaiming the space. The control of RSS sympathisers was strengthened after the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014.

Rahul must have a pragmatic view of the existing political development in the country. Instead of depending on some aides he must develop a group of efficient leaders at the state level. The failure of the party to effectively utilise the favourable situation in Bihar got its manifestation in party even losing the seats it won in the last election. Some leaders having vested interest prevailed upon him. Tickets for elections were sold openly. The state or even the central leadership did not make effort to channelize the anger and frustration of the migrant labourers or the local people. The problem of the Congress is it is unable to identify its potential ally. The Congress leaders must realise that computers do not manifest the emotions and social relations of the Indian people. Identity politics must be based on sound reasoning.

The regional satraps must have a freehand in running the party, the leadership must respect their emotions and suggestions, but must ensure that the state unit follows the central guideline. The dissension and desertions from the party primarily owes to the absence of an effective channel for ventilation of grievances. It is significant to watch that a section of leaders in the Congress does have reservations about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. They are not confident of the abilities of Rahul to deliver. They are also worried about the possibility of Rahul Gandhi not returning as president.

Some leaders close to Rahul try to feed the information that the act of Rahul of not taking over the charge of the president is a tactical move to send the message that Congress is not the sole property of Gandhi, would not yield desired result. In the past some of the prominent and senior leaders, like Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, N D Tiwari and others had launched their Congress parties as a replacement of the AICC. But they failed to catch the imagination of the common people. Finally they had to come back to the AICC.

The rejection of the parallel Congress outfits underlines the compliant attitude of the people of the country. The people of India prefer to worship the powerful, they want to align and identified with the power house. The same thing is happening in the case of Modi. A huge proportion of the people prefer his macho image and that is the reason that in spite of all his drawbacks and abject failure to fulfil his electoral promises, of taking India to a new horizon, people continue to believe his white lies. (IPA Service)