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| Edited By: Kay Benedict |Source: DNA |Updated: Jun 10, 2016, 07:45 AM IST
At the outset, a disclaimer. The purport of this write-up is not to defend Rahul Gandhi but try to figure out what ails the Congress. Being the captain of the ship, the Gandhi scion certainly cannot absolve himself of the recurring electoral fiascos.
As for the defeats in Assam and Kerala, they are not his making. The debacle in Assam after 15 consecutive years in power ought not have come as a shocker. Winning a fourth row is an uphill task. The party had similarly lost Delhi in 2013 when chief minister Sheila Dikshit was voted out despite her unparalleled development track record.
Huge anti-incumbency apart, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi paid the price for two foibles — one of his own making and the other about which he could do little. Call it arrogance or overconfidence, the 82-year-old veteran refused to have an alliance with AIUDF led by Badruddin Ajmal. Ajmal had rushed to Delhi, met the Congress brass pleading for a tie-up but a haughty Gogoi red flagged the alliance whereas BJP bolstered itself with AGP and BPF.
Rahul ignored party leader Hemanta Biswa Sharma when the latter visited him (a reason trotted out to justify Sharma’s defection to BJP), because, Sharma, hardly a mass leader, insisted on replacing his bête noire and sitting CM. Rahul refused to oblige fearing that it could set bad precedents in other states.
Interestingly, in all his party meetings, a theme Rahul repeatedly flagged was “unity”. In May 2013, during one such interaction, he reportedly said: “I don’t care who forms the government, governments come and go. I will not tolerate factionalism ....”
In Kerala, the party lost largely due to local factors. Corruption charges against UDF ministers — solar and bar bribery scams — had dominated media headlines. Solar scam accused Saritha Nair had gone public accusing CM Oomen Chandy of unsavoury deeds. Also, the Kerala leadership grossly underestimated the damage potential from BJP and its ally BDJS. It miscalculated that the BJP front will harm the CPM more than the Congress.
The state leadership was so confident that it did not showcase Rahul in the campaign blitz. Pictures of state leaders dominated the advertisements and posters while in some billboards a small picture of Rahul was added.
Rahul had curtailed his rallies due to ill-health and a threat to his life.
In Bengal, Congress leaders met him and even threatened to revolt if he did not agree to have an alliance with the Left in the state.
The party is facing a plethora of problems — its machinery is moribund in many states while severe leadership crisis, intense factional feuds, ego wars and Rahul’s unorthodox style, have exacerbated the crisis.
The organisational mess apart, the party has, unlike the BJP and the CPM, no ideological cohesion, a unifying thread or a committed cadre to boast of. Rather than ideology, “power” seems to be the glue. A party like the Congress can flourish only in favourable climes. Gone are the days when it could bounce back even with a laid-back leadership. Its political adversaries have since muscled and multiplied making it tough for the party to reclaim its space.
Many leaders have proven to be ungrateful. At least a dozen have ditched the party in recent times when they found that their fortunes are dipping.
In February 2013, Vijay Bahuguna, then Uttarakhand CM, suggested that Rahul Gandhi should become the Prime Minister during a meeting of PCC chiefs and CMs. The sycophant was instantly snubbed.
“Do your work, don’t give unsolicited advice. What is the problem with the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh). He is doing a good job. I don’t want to hear this again”, retorted Rahul. Bahuguna was later replaced with Harish Rawat for mishandling the floods in the state. A wounded Bahuguna retaliated trying to topple the Congress government in Uttarakhand with BJP help last month.
While Hemanta Sharma joined BJP on the eve of Assam elections, senior leader and former Haryana minister Birendra Singh quit the party before the 2014 LS polls to join the BJP and become a Union minister. As AICC general secretary in-charge, he was a disaster in many states. Jagadambika Pal, another veteran, defected to BJP and got elected to Parliament. The list is long. These leaders did not suffer any prick of conscience while crossing over as there is no ideological indoctrination in the Congress.
Leaders like Jayanthi Natarajan, who was brought to the Rajya Sabha and made a minister despite not having a mass base or anything outstanding to brag about, started bad-mouthing Rahul after an alleged meeting with BJP president Amit Shah following UPA’s defeat. Hansraj Bhardwaj, who was made law minister and later Governor of Karnataka, is the latest to join the Gandhi bashers because 10, Janpath is no longer in a position to dispense spoils of power. Congress leader and former minister Beni Prasad Verma, who failed to win the poll in 2014, recently joined the Samajwadi Party.
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi had sent out veiled threats of forming a new party if the Congress took action against him in the wake of allegations of “election fixing” with BJP last year. Jogi’s son was expelled from the Congress for “election fixing” with Raman Singh and Jogi, a dynast, has been promoting son Amit Jogi. Jogi himself had come under the cloud for the Sukma Naxal attack on a Congress convoy in 2013, killing 25 Congress leaders, including former minister and tribal leader Mahendra Karma, Jogi’s bête noire and PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel. Jogi is at loggerheads with present PCC president Bhupesh Bhagel as well. Jogi is the only popular leader left after the Maoist attack. The disconnect between him and the high command only widened after the by-election controversy.
Gurudas Kamat was promoted by Rahul three years ago and made AICC general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan, Gujarat and a couple of union territories. The Congress drew a blank in Gujarat and Rajasthan in the LS polls, though he alone cannot be held responsible. He was sulking after Sanjay Nirupam was made Mumbai Congress chief and denial of a Rajya Sabha further alienated him.
A well-intentioned Rahul conducted many experiments to strengthen the party — some naive, some good (like corporate-style interviews for talent hunt, selecting candidates like US primaries, asking state PCCs to maintain a logbook of activities to check on those who bunk work, asking state units to suggest names for appointment of AICC office-bearers etc), but they have all come unstuck. Though he has been calling the shots last few years, an entrenched power centre around Sonia is still active and is in a position to remote-control AICC affairs. It is time for the party to end the dual power centre and give him full charge of the party. It will make or mar him, so be it.
The writer is a political commentator
