A letter rocks the Congress
Party leaders have done well to ring the alarm bell. Act on it
According to a report in The Indian Express, 23 senior leaders of the Congress — including former chief ministers, former Union ministers, members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), senior office-bearers — have written a letter to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. In it, they have acknowledged the erosion in the support base of the party and pointed to the lack of honest introspection after electoral defeats. The leaders have also outlined an agenda for reform — a fulltime, effective, active and visible president; elections at all levels in the party (including CWC); establishing an institutional leadership model to collectively guide the party; a national coalition with like-minded parties, among other steps. For weeks, rumours of the letter have swirled around but been strenuously denied by some of its signatories. The report came a day ahead of an important CWC meeting.
The letter comes in the backdrop of the exit of young leaders of the Congress over the past year, increased factionalism in state units, a continued sense of drift over the direction of the party, and uncertainty about leadership — even as Narendra Modi continues to enjoy high levels of popularity. Ever since the 2014 polls, and definitely more so since 2019, many observers outside the party have pointed to the structural, organisational, ideological, and personality-centric weaknesses of the Congress — this view was shared by insiders too, but they weren’t willing to speak up publicly. The true significance of the letter is not as much in what it says but the fact that it has finally been said, by a cross-section of party leaders — from the north and south, old and young, those experienced in electoral politics and those more comfortable with policy. Having served the Congress for decades, they are speaking from a position of anguish and a desire to see the party do better.
The letter is also significant because of what it does not say. By emphasising on collective leadership, it is signalling to the Nehru-gandhi family that the entire notion of the control of party high command needs to be redesigned. By asking for elections at each level, it is seeking democratisation of the organisation. By calling for a president who meets various qualities, it is suggesting that an absent leadership, with limited mass connect, would not be able to revive the party’s fortunes — this is even more important because the face of the party needs to have the abilities and stature to challenge Mr Modi in 2024. The letter recognises the scale of the challenge faced by the Grand Old Party. For its own sake, and for the sake of Indian democracy, the Congress should act on it.