Rahul Gandhi as Congress President: 5 big challenges that await him

Finally, after numerous ‘confirmed’ reports proving to be false, for the better part of a decade, Rahul Gandhi is set to take over as the Congress President. The throne was there for his taking all this time around, and no one really minded him taking over except some senior leaders who wanted the old status quo to be maintained for self-preservation.

Yet, Rahul Gandhi dilly-dallied and finally is taking over Congress, at a time when the party is staring down a barrel. And irrespective of whatever happens in Gujarat in a week’s time, the Congress President has his task cut out to resuscitate the sinking ship.

Here are some of the major challenges Rahul will be facing in the coming days, and how deftly he manages them well make the difference between a champion and an also-ran challenger.

Is ‘Gujarat model’ the way to go?

Rahul’s ‘Gujarat model’ was pretty much unabashed symbolism of being a ‘janeu carrying Hindu’, with his temple tourism. But not every state is Gujarat, where he can take the Muslim vote for granted. Going forward, he has to campaign in states like West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, etc where there is more than one stakeholder to get the minority votes.

 That will be a real challenge for Rahul Gandhi, and it will be interesting to see Congress President’s approach there especially regarding virtue signalling by visiting places of religion. Also, what about the majority population? As Arun Jaitley said, will the public accept a clone when BJP is positioned as the ‘Hindu party’? Is Gujarat a one-off or Congress will toe the soft Hindutva line in the future too? The future of Congress’ identity depends on these questions.

Will he empower regional satraps?

While Shah- Modi duo gave BJP the killer instincts, what made the party tick even before that was bunch of strong state leaders who nurtured their constituents and brought home the bounty during elections. Vajpayee and Advani aided with RSS help, ensured that such a system is well entrenched within the BJP hierarchy.

Even, Modi is product of such system. Whereas in Congress, for a very long time, it has been extremely High Command-centric, where the state leaders or CMs are mere rubber stamps running the show. The problem with such an approach is that once the High Command loses its currency or credibility, it’s easy for the opposition to win many states at one swoop as domino effect, in absence of potent firewalls.

 Rahul made an exception to this Congress culture with Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab, who was given a free hand to take on the SAD-BJP combine and a budding AAP. Amarinder didn’t let Congress down, and turned out to be a rare ray of sunshine in the general gloom and doom surrounding the party.

For sake of Congress’ sound health, Rahul needs to groom and empower such leaders in all states. Sure, they will fail from time to time, but here the Congress President has to be patient and play the long game.  In this way, the party can be made immune from another 44 seat-like apocalypse, the kind we witnessed in 2014.

How does he accommodate senior leaders?

The Mani Shankar saga, which virtually sidetracked Congress’ well-choreographed campaign in Gujarat is enough indication that the party is carrying a lot of dead-weight. There are many leaders of the old school durbari style, true blue ‘seculars’, quote-happy about any topic under the sun. They bring precious little to the party except embarrassment with hectic firefighting needed to douse the fire they have inadvertently lit.

The biggest challenge for Rahul Gandhi is that he is up against Shah-Modi duo- who are masters of communication. So even a slightest slip-up, can be death nail of a campaign, from the Congress point-of-view.

 Also with Congress being the default party of governance in most states for last 60 years, public’s tolerance for their goof-up is pretty less. To quote McLuhan, medium is the message and Rahul needs his best men to do the job for it. Yet, there are some senior leaders like Ashok Gehlot, Ahmed Patel and Siddaramaiah who are still good enough to do their job. Hence, Rahul needs to do a brutal purge and send some leaders to ‘Margdarshak mandal’ without throwing the baby out of the bath-water.

Can Rahul be pragmatic for 2019?

Derek-O-Brien in his book says in 2019, the opposition should be looking at fighting 29 small battles in 29 states, rather than going for one giant war against the rampaging BJP. Essentially,he pitches for opposition parties to come together and contest against BJP with state-specific agenda. It’s not a novel idea. The Mahagatbandhan or even the Third Front in its previous avatar has tried this experiment, albeit against different opposition.

 But it has mostly resulted in dead-ends because of too many internal contradiction and political sacrifices which are needed to be done.  For a united opposition to work in 2019, Congress has to accommodate lot of parties, and Rahul Gandhi has to massage many fragile egos.

 Can he work with both Mayawati and Akhilesh in UP, a Kejriwal in Delhi, an Omar Abdullah in J&K, a Mamata in Bengal?  If a Grand Alliance does take place, Congress will be contesting significantly lesser seats. It will also limit chances of Rahul Gandhi becoming the next PM, in case a non-NDA government is formed. Is he willing to take that gamble to risk his political space just to keep BJP in abeyance? This central question may well hold the key to the 2019 puzzle.

Can ‘dynastic’ Congress run on pure merit again?

‘That’s how India works’ - was Rahul Gandhi’s rationale when asked about Congress party’s dynasty issue in UC Berkley. While it’s understandable why Rahul became defensive, as he is the greatest product of that dysfunctional system, it is hardly anything to be proud of. Almost every Congress leader in prominent states are sons and daughters of prominent leaders.

 From Sachin Pilot to Sushmita Dev, from Jyotiraditya Scindia to Jitin Prasad - dynasty runs deep among next-gen Congress leaders who will helm important posts in future. Not like these emerging leaders are incapable, but a more inclusive process would have helped to prop up more sons and daughter of the soil. At a time when voters are increasingly aspirational, people from humble backgrounds are more likely to click with the public.

Thus, in essence Congress has no answers when a chaiwallah PM Modi accuses Mani Shankar Aiyar of elitism and classism with his ‘neech aadmi’ jibe. Rahul is aware of the issue and he tried to rebuild the youth wing of the party from scratch during his time as Vice President. 

 Now he needs to do that autopsy with the main stem. Nurturing promising young talent sometimes at the behest of old-Family faithful would go a long way in rejuvenating the legacy of the Grand Old Party.

The challenges are steep and there is very little gestation period for the Gandhi scion. Congress is in a historical threshold facing a real danger of being further obliterated. It is up to Rahul Gandhi to prove his naysayers wrong and restore lost glory of the century-old organization.