To stay relevant, Congress must hold inner-party polls
After repeated electoral setbacks the party has endured in recent years, is there any relevance left for the Congress? Many may think the question redundant, considering how little the party’s impact has been on the ground in most parts of the country. And yet, there is another question: “Does India need a viable Opposition?” This question has not become pressing on account of the government’s conspicuous failures to deal with the corona crisis last year and this year, which is pretty much an open and shut case, no matter how much the BJP may try to put a spin on it. Even before the virus struck, the economy stood shaken on account of questionable policies, and the unemployment rate was the highest in 45 years. Shortly thereafter, the Chinese Army marched into territories on India’s side of the Line of Actual Control and remains there by and large. The humiliation is stark.
If none of this has quite registered with the public, there has to be a question about the effectiveness of the Opposition. For want of a viable choice, the voter may find themselves stuck in a rut. This hypothesis may be too structured. After all, the electorate is capable of springing a dramatic surprise, as in the election after the Emergency. But for that to happen, there have to be on the scene political actors with antecedents, and some reliability.
On that count the present-day Congress inspires too little confidence. There is a leadership vacuum. Party units do not function on the ground in most states. And where they do, they are riven in factions, and cannot hold a coherent line. In any case, the party is lacking a message. Defections are frequent, Jitin Prasada being the most recent. As for even the most swashbuckling of regional parties, these are not of a mould that can fit the pattern nationwide. As if to attest to this, the ruling BJP’s highest political priority appears to be to decimate a Congress whose trace is slowly disappearing. If this is an irony of sorts, it also tells us something about the meaning of brand value.
There has been some G-23 messaging after Mr Prasada quit last Wednesday, but most in the G-23 are not even paper tigers. What the Congress needs is a stiff dose of the sanjeevani of even a haphazard CWC election based on old AICC roles, which in turn would lead on to an immediate election for the party president.
The Gandhi family has meant well and has hewed to the line of Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru. The tallest of them is too unwell to carry on even in an interim capacity. The most vital of them, and the most honorable, will not return as party chief. He resigned taking responsibility for a major poll defeat and announced none in his family would fill the slot after him. Which means he has paved the way for a fresh election for party president.
If this can happen well before the upcoming election in UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa in early 2022, the Congress can be in the hunt for the laurels, and the political scene can be electrified. Let the Congress disregard the corona restrictions (as it would need to anyway when elections are announced), and go for inner-party polls.
The present-day Congress inspires too little confidence. There is a leadership vacuum. Party units do not function on the ground in most states. And where they do, they are riven in factions, and cannot hold a coherent line.