RAGTAG COALITION IS NO MATCH FOR MODI
While pollsters and political pundits have been busy evaluating three years of BJP in the Central saddle, it is equally important before hazarding an informed guess to assess where the Congress party which held sway over the Centre and in most states until three years ago stands today. Indeed, the way the Congress has surrendered its built-in advantages to the BJP is a lesson in what not to do when a party holding the aces for a prolonged period is booted out of power.
Today, the BJP is in power in 16 states while Congress presence extends to only six states – Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and in Bihar as part of a coalition between three parties. Only the first three of these return sizeable numbers to the Lok Sabha. While in Punjab it was virtually a one-man show by Captain Amarinder Singh—who kept the party’s heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi at arm’s length, in Karnataka and Himachal the party faces rough weather in the next Assembly elections.
When the common man was forced to queue up before banks for hours together as a fallout of demonetisation of high-denomination currency, many thought that was the chance for the Congress to capitalise on. But led by a singularly ineffective and uncharismatic Rahul Gandhi who neither enthuses the masses nor his own cadres, the Congress wasted a golden opportunity. It was the charismatic Prime Minister Narendra Modi who converted a decision of doubtful merit into an opportunity to sway the masses again much to the Congress’ chagrin.
It was surmised that the farmers and the urban common man alike would be angry with the BJP, but when the results of elections in five states came, it was the BJP all the way in the key state of UP which sends by far the most number of members to Parliament, and in Uttarakhand.
The Congress got more seats than the BJP both in Goa and Manipur but while the BJP was able to garner support of other parties to form coalitions, the Congress was caught napping. It was a display of crass ineptness on the part of the Congress which reflected poorly on the party leadership.
While typically, the archetypal Congressman, servile and sycophantic, has been mum about Rahul Gandhi’s pathetic leadership, the party is sinking deeper and deeper into hopelessness and morass. To party president Sonia Gandhi’s credit, she has succeeded in bringing major opposition forces under a common platform but so lacklustre is the Opposition and so utterly bereft of a viable and credible governance model are the disparate parties, that they look like a motley crowd that is confused and directionless.
The Opposition cannot hope to effectively counter the Modi juggernaut by mere herding of party leaders. Launching a tirade is no substitute for presenting a cogent alternative programme. So far, the Opposition parties have only been ranting. They need to go beyond by offering solutions for the country’s problems.
Recently, the Opposition leaders, mostly from the Congress, deliberated on the volatile Kashmir situation. Once again, the only common thread was criticism of the Central and State governments. There was no blueprint for alternate action. The Congress has for long been talking of a younger leadership taking over the party reins. But the mantle of leadership is yet to pass into Rahul Gandhi’s hands, evidently upon hidden fears that he is not equal to the task of rejuvenating the party.
It was Rahul’s initiative riding over other leaders in the Congress without adequate consultation, in conjunction with Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party that led to the disastrous alliance between the two that came a cropper in the recent UP Assembly elections. That there was not even an admission of a strategy gone wrong from the heir-apparent was typical arrogance that Congressmen have got accustomed to. Here is a man who is considered beyond accountability and while that irks the cadres, the leadership couldn’t care less. Earlier, the Congress had suffered a crushing defeat in the Assam assembly polls when Rahul Gandhi denied leadership of Assam Congress to Sarbananda Sonowal who then defected to the BJP and brought victory to that party. It was a monumental miscalculation on Rahul’s part but as is usual, the vice-president was insulated from all criticism by a leadership that owes blind servility to the Sonia-Rahul duo.
Such an attitude would not stand the Congress in good stead. Now, finding that nothing is working, the party is striving to shed its anti-Hindu image. Recently, it suspended some youth leaders in Kerala because they slaughtered a cow in full public view, and exulted over it, hurting the sentiments of the majority community which was egged on by the BJP. Rahul also announced recently that he is reading the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita these days to “take on the BJP and the RSS” which he said do not understand India. The Congress scion said BJP men were under the impression that the “entire universal knowledge” came out of the prime minister.
Such gems of immaturity have led to people at large not taking Rahul seriously when he propounds his ‘wisdom.’ It is time his mother Sonia realises that Rahul is just not cut out for politics and if the Congress is to bounce back, it needs a more dynamic leader who is endowed with robust common sense.
The index of Opposition unity worked beautifully in the Bihar assembly elections but can that be reason enough for the poorly-led Congress to think that in the Lok Sabha polls, Rahul would find acceptance as the leader to challenge Narendra Modi? Would the Congress accept a Sharad Pawar or a Nitish Kumar over Rahul Gandhi? Would a Mamata Banerjee be acceptable to the Left leaving aside the pretensions of accepting any leader to challenge Modi? Even if the Opposition does agree on a common candidate, would the people — the real arbiters of the country’s destiny — accept a ragtag coalition that has only the hatred of Modi as a glue?