7 reasons why Sonia Gandhi failed the Congress

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has often been held responsible for the party’s dismal performance in the past three years. It started with the UPA’s loss in the 2014 general elections, but rather than blaming Rahul, one should blame his mother, Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the condition of the Grand Old Party of India.  While one cannot deny that Sonia united warring factions and brought them together to bring Congress back to power, her role today goes unevaluated.

There are seven reasons that can attribute Sonia Gandhi’s style of governance, which not only lost her public support, but also corroded the party structure to a level where Congress is on the verge of becoming irrelevant as a national player opposed to BJP.

1. The team of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi as the driving force of the party lost its novelty in the second term of the UPA. What originally looked as a division of work and renunciation later came to be viewed as ‘power without responsibility.’ People began looking at Manmohan Singh as a helpless person, who was at the beck and call of 10 Janpath.  The general view was that Singh was also ‘keeping the seat warm’ for Rahul Gandhi, rather than a person who was running the government with his vision. This made Narendra Modi look like someone who would restore political authority in the PMO.

2.UPA’s desire to be in power allowed individuals such as Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Suresh Kalmadi, amongst others a free hand. Apart from this, internal feuds between party members that couldn’t be resolved and made Prime Minister Manmohan Singh look ineffective. Sonia Gandhi did not resolve any of these issues.

3. UPA II made several compromises to remain in power. The vote on the nuclear deal and admitting people from regional parties were just some of the compromises, despite opposition from Manmohan Singh. Sonia Gandhi’s silence also gave the opposition a chance to talk about corruption, giving rise to the India Against Corruption drive and in the process, an opportunity for Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal to make their presence felt. Corruption became synonymous to the Congress.

4. Rahul Gandi became a problem for the party. When Congress won in 2009, people attributed it to the Congress vice-president’s charisma, rather than a product of Manmohan Singh waiving farmers’ loans in the state.  The Congress PR, however, played up the Rahul factor, but by the end of 2014, Rahul Gandhi wasn’t being taken seriously by the voter.  He came across as person removed from the larger Hindu ethos, alien to the lived subaltern culture, elitist, part time politician and someone who tried to be rebel in a system controlled by him and his mother. It didn’t cut ice with the electorate and no one in the Congress Party had the gumption to tell this to Sonia Gandhi who from 2009 onwards was more focused on Rahul’s elevation rather than re-working the corroded insides of the Congress. It was Sonia’s maternal blindness and her ability to force Rahul on the servile Congress wasn’t appreciated by the electorate. She failed to read the time. Outsider was the insider. It was for this reason that till today Rahul continues as the Vice President and Sonia continues as the aloof and aristocratic president of an ailing party.

5. The Congress underestimated the campaign strength of Narendra Modi. He was either ridiculed or ignored after 2009, but the Congress failed to understand his methods. After the 2009 victory, and LK Advani’s unwillingness to make space for Modi, Congress felt that the schism would allow them a good fight. It didn’t, and Modi was able to launch the party’s campaign a year before 2014 elections. Congress wanted to duck the issue and didn’t project Rahul as the Prime Ministerial candidate knowing very well that the results can be otherwise. Modi personalized the campaign against the Gandhis. He didn’t attack the Congress. He attacked the Gandhis. This combination allowed Modi certain transgressions in the early part of the campaign which people came to relish that you could criticise the Gandhis again. The last was in 1989.

6. Congress shot itself in its foot by mismanaging Andhra Pradesh. The result was that when bifurcation took place, instead of strengthening the party, Congress lost both the states. Its cadre evaporated and was swallowed by the regional set up. This mistake made Congress disappear from two states at the same time.

7. Lastly, Sonia Gandhi whose modernity and Indian experience was primarily shaped by Indira Gandhi failed to fathom the tectonic shift in Indian society. It was about making minority or sectional veto irrelevant. We see its hard edges today in tribal areas or Kashmir but the fact is that it is not un-cool to be a practicing Hindu or to criticise Naxalites or even Kashmiri politicians for not standing up to certain concerns. Sonia failed to gauge it. She failed to gauge that right was making a strident effort to push into the ideological and educational matrix which was dominated by the Centre or left of Centre. The party looked less Hindu and people couldn’t connect with it. This ideological confusion lies at the core of the Congress which three years after 2014 defeat continues to grapple with the issue of alliance and core Congress identity. Both continue to remain unidentified.

Postscript: In 2015 in San Francisco, an industrialist asked me the difference between RG and NM, I said,” One started his life from temples is now sermonsing the start-ups in SFO and the one who started his career in the West is busy visiting temples in India.”