Scindia move shows how Cong is drifting

Jyotiraditya Scindia’s resignation from the Congress will have had little impact on the ground, for he just represents two districts in Madhya Pradesh — Guna and Gwalior. It isn’t as if it is his impregnable fiefdom — he sank in the BJP tsunami in the 2019 parliamentary election. Two, though it appeared to threaten the survival of the Madhya Pradesh government, it is likely that chief minister Kamal Nath will resort to some old-time “management” to keep his government afloat. The MLAs who had flown to Bengaluru might even get cold feet at the thought of joining an already robust state BJP. Three, the fact that home minister Amit Shah was absent from Mr Scindia’s televised entry is evidence of how unimportant he will likely be in the BJP’s scheme of things.

However, in terms of optics, Mr Scindia’s departure is a setback for the Grand Old Party. He was a member of the party’s highest decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee; he was a minister throughout Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure; he is telegenic, speaks good English, is active on the social media, and has given fiery speeches in Parliament. He was one of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s “youth brigade”, and perhaps shared a decades-old association. In April 2019 Mr Scindia was given cocharge, with general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, to prepare Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha election. If such a person, as close to power as a non-dynast can be, leaves the party, it speaks volumes of the drift in the Congress.

The drift has been noticeable lately. After the Delhi Assembly elections, where the party once again drew a blank (it had ruled for three consecutive terms till 2013), high-profile members were at each other’s throats over congratulating the Aam Aadmi Party’s triumph. Last month, rumours bubbled up of a section in the party not wanting Rahul back as president, with former MP (and former Delhi CM’s son) Sandeep Dikshit saying there were “six to eight” others capable of leading the party. Rahul himself reportedly told three young members in Parliament that he would not return as chief unless the rest of the party toed

Last month, rumours bubbled up of a section in the party not wanting Rahul back as president. Rahul himself reportedly said that he would not return as chief unless the rest of the party toed his line vis-à-vis the BJP.

his line vis-a-vis the BJP.

With this tussle, it is no wonder that the Congress has been slow to react to things such as the Delhi riots, though it did eventually come to the forefront and demand Amit Shah’s resignation. With other parties opting for soft Hindutva, the Congress has a simple path to rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes.

Talk of organisational elections is high-falutin hogwash because it is no secret that the Congress is run like a proprietary concern. The promoter, Rahul Gandhi, has merely to take control. If a general manager in the concern — such as Ahmed Patel — proves a nuisance, then just fire him. Let the Scindias and the Pilots and the Prasads leave; they take nothing substantial away from the party. But the Congress, and Rahul, must get their act together, ASAP, particularly with a tough electoral battle in Bihar looming on the horizon.