DNA Edit: Never too easy – RaGa’s move to decentralise party has not taken off

Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s much publicised decentralisation drive proves that it is always easy to make announcements in political parties, but invariably difficult to follow them up. As it happens, far from devolving powers, his office has become the sole repository of authority in India’s grand old party. Right from appointing state and district-level leaders to distributing party tickets, it is Rahul and his office that call the shots. In an organisation split into several factions, where one group is not willing to listen to the other, it is his mediatory role that keeps the party going. But in the process, the whole concept of decentralisation has taken a back seat. To be fair, Rahul did try to introduce a new culture. Chief of frontal organisations in the party were encouraged to take decisions without prompting from Delhi. 

When he took over as the party president last year, state unit chiefs were asked not to rush to Delhi for every small issue. More than anything else, it led to delays in decision making as Rahul was constantly travelling. When present, the list of appointments would be so long that it would become difficult to accommodate central and state leaders at one stretch. It led the Congress think tank to conclude that with over centralisation, the local Congress leadership would lose its face and voice, which was vital in building up the party at the grassroots. Quite clearly, Rahul’s grand plan to change the ecosystem within the party has run into rough weather. While it is easy to say that the young generation will take over, the old hawks in Congress cannot be easily replaced. Neither, it seems, can they be placated. 

As the recent selection of Chief Ministers in post-poll Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have demonstrated, Rahul may have wanted the younger leaders to take over, but given the ground realities – where both seniors, Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath, had more MLAs backing them in their respective assemblies than Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia respectively – it was the old guard that got the nod over the young colts. It would also be instructive to remember that the Nehru-Gandhi family is also the glue that keeps Congress going. In the early 1990s in the post-Rajiv Gandhi phase, when the family was not incharge of the party at a time when PV Narsimha Rao was Prime Minister, Congress appeared to be going to pieces. 

Important party satraps had quit the party to float their own small regional outfits and it was the advent of Sonia Gandhi on the scene in the late 1990s that had finally united the party. So while many Congress leaders do not see eye to eye on many topics, they are all united in their support for Rahul Gandhi. With the crucial General Election not too far away, the Congress can ill afford to affect changes that can prove to be detrimental. At a meeting in January 2, for instance, the party has decided to give a bigger role to Rahul’s office, akin to the powers once held by 10 Janpath, official residence of Sonia Gandhi.