Within a few weeks, Congress is likely to have a new president. Be it a veteran or a youngster, he – at this moment a 'she' looks an impossibility – won't be able to save the party from its current crisis. There won't be any point in leadership change unless the party could effect a sea change in its policies and political approach, feel some critical insiders.
A section of Congress leaders, including those who have been associated with the Nehru-Gandhi family for long and youngsters who lead feeder organisations, is unhappy with the way Rahul Gandhi reacted after the Lok Sabha debacle and his hasty resignation as Congress president, leaving the party in a fix.
To them, Rahul shouldn't have retreated after the battle but put up a brave face of a fallen warrior.
“It's a tragic situation,” a young leader described the state of Congress after the Lok Sabha poll results. He, as well as an AICC office-bearer who spoke to Onmanorama on the present crisis of the party, admitted that the party top brass is clueless as to who would lead it, if not Rahul.
Veteran Congress leader and former Union minister K V Thomas was optimistic. “It's a natural crisis. PM Modi got one more term like how Manmohan Singh did in 2009. Congress will remain a responsible opposition,” he told Onmanorama. Citing Congress's legacy of the freedom struggle and nation building, Thomas said the party still has grassroots-level workers across the country. He hopes that it would revive itself.
However, the younger leaders Onmanorama spoke to did not share such optimism. They said the party can survive only if it overhauled its style of functioning.
With Rahul opting himself out of the top post, the party now needs a young and energetic leader who represents angry young India at the helm, he said. He said the leader should also be able to raise funds for the party.
“We could win only 52 seats, but nearly 12 crore Indians voted for us. We should reach out to them and seek funds no matter what little amount they can contribute,” he suggested. He said the party has to do away with the practice of depending only on a few business magnates for funds.
“We live at a time when political parties function like corporate houses. The finest example is the BJP. They have a structure and hierarchy where work is divided and everyone is accountable. When it comes to Congress, it's still hovering around one family. This has to change,” the leader said.
He said as Congress president, Rahul should have reached out to those who did not vote for the Congress in the LS polls and listened to them.
Did Rahul fail?
The leaders Onmanorama spoke to did not hesitate to list out some traits of Rahul they found unacceptable. Most important among them is his alleged tendency to refuse to accept critical voices. The young leader, who had several personal encounters with Rahul, alleged that a coterie was controlling Rahul's office and they used to deny appointments to those who wanted to meet him. “Only letters that were appreciative of Rahul's qualities got replies,” he said.
He said the coterie served Rahul with data that suited his whims and fancies. “Rahul was expecting to win 150 seats, hence the analytics team provided him with data that suggested the party was going to win as many seats,” he alleged.
The AICC leader, who is in charge of the party's affairs in a state, hailed Rahul as an honest and determined individual. “He does not favour corporates much. However, from a pragmatic perspective, he should have been more accommodative of their interests,” he said.
He was also critical of Rahul's accusation that party leaders did not stand with him during the campaign and took off the slogans he had raised. “Many leaders in Delhi told me that they did not raise the issue of alleged Rafale scam during the campaign as aggressively as Rahul did because they were not convinced of the charges,” he said.
He said the Congress, over the years, made the mistake of not protecting its leaders from rivals' charges and attack. “Look at BJP, they protect their leaders at any cost whereas in Congress leaders are shown the door or shoved aside when the rival parties raise even a minor charge against them,” he said, stressing the need to keep the flock together in practical politics.
He also said the AICC's decision to gag spokespersons from attending TV debates after the election rout was a strategic failure. Despite the blame, he is of the opinion that only a leader from the Nehru-Gandhi family can keep the Congress intact at this juncture.
Can Congress come back?
Congress can revive itself only if it can work out a plan to remain without power for at least 10 years. “Congress is an election-by-election party. Now, it has to learn how to survive without power for a few years. Every government is bound to face anti-incumbency feelings at some stage. Modi government's fate will also be the same ultimately. By that time we should be able to emerge ourselves as an alternative,” he said.
He said instead of keep blaming the BJP's Hindutva ideology as the prime reason for its electoral wins, the Congress should also learn from the common people if they had benefited from the Modi rule in any way.
Noting the importance of a constructive opposition, the leader said some other parties, perhaps even a new one, would occupy that position if the Congress fails to do so.
Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor sounded optimistic about the future of the party in an article he wrote in The Week recently.
“This history of the Congress offers fitting solace to aggrieved party supporters. It is they who recognise better than any other that in the past we have been beaten but never broken. We have been diminished but never extinguished. And, while we have been fundamentally questioned before, we have always come back with answers to those questions and have turned the page on a new chapter in the Congress’s history,” he wrote.
However, he added that “merely relying on tradition is not the solution that the Congress supporter seeks.” “The results have made it clear that there is an imminent need for a course correction within the party and how it rises to that challenge will determine in a significant way what the future holds for it,” he wrote.
Interestingly, the leaders Onmanorama spoke to were critical of the party top brass' handling of a leader like Tharoor. “We have never made use of his capabilities. He should have been the right choice for the party's leader in the Lok Sabha,” the AICC leader said. “Look at Tharoor, he has been sidelined because he speaks out his mind,” the young leader said.