What ails Congress? Its feudal culture
The biggest malady that plagues the Congress is a feudal culture of servility and sycophancy towards the NehruGandhi dynasty which has virtually controlled the party in one way or another for almost a hundred years - of which Rahul is the scion. This culture filters all feedback to the party leadership and leads to distorted decision making from the bottom of the organisation pyramid to the very top
Another decisive election victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being heralded as the validation of a robust functioning democracy in India. However, what is not so good for parliamentary democracy is the realisation that, lost in the euphoria of the BJP again winning an absolute majority, is the decimation of all organised political opposition to the ruling power centre and the dominant political party. A strong national level opposition to the ruling political party is essential for a strong and vibrant democracy. It acts as a check for the dominant party and keeps it on its toes by providing a credible alternative to the electorate.
The 2019 poll results have seen the Indian National Congress, the principal opposition party, dealt a body blow. It won only 52 of the 542 contested seats in the Lok Sabha, falling short of the 54 mark needed to get Leader of the Opposition status. They may have got marginally more numbers in 2019, but the crisis they face is worse than 2014, when they touched their nadir with 44 seats, because that was partly because of anti-incumbency and the promise of good days by Modi.
The Congress today is in a crisis. Despite garnering 122 million votes, it has failed to mark its presence, failed the people and itself. It has failed to provide an ideological alternative to the Indian electorate. Founded in 1885, it was the principal leader of the independence movement in India, with the pervasive sight of a Congress worker wearing a white Nehru cap visible in even the remotest corner of the country. Now that figure is rarely seen, except inside Congress party offices. The erosion in its popularity, standing and ideological support is unprecedented.
The crucial question is will the Congress, once the Grand Old Party, be able to resurrect itself? How can it forget that its leader Indira Gandhi was the last Congress prime minister to win a majority for her party in parliament after a full fiveyear term? The fact is that the Congress has been on virtual life support for some decades, brave rhetoric from its leadership to the contrary notwithstanding. Sonia Gandhi, widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, has struggled to revive it after she became its chief in 1998. After she handed over the reins to her son Rahul in December 2017, the Congress has failed to rejuvenate itself. He led the campaign against a BJP surge in the 2014 as well as the 2019 elections, but with disastrous results.
Where has the Congress leadership gone wrong? What ails the party?
The biggest malady that plagues the Congress is a feudal culture of servility and sycophancy towards the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty - which has virtually controlled the party in one way or another for almost a hundred years - of which Rahul is the scion. This culture filters all feedback to the party leadership and leads to distorted decision making from the bottom of the organisation pyramid to the very top. That is why one sees incompetent Congressmen and women in leadership roles right from the district level to state level and then at the Congress headquarters itself. The biggest criteria to land a position of importance is loyalty to The Family.
The second important factor is that the Congress leadership does not have its ears to the ground. It does not have its finger on the pulse of the young in a changing India. The Congress is still living in the India of the 1960s where slogans and dynasty could do the trick. This has led to a disconnect between the Congress and the people, who are not being able to identify with the top Congress leadership as they did with Rahul’s grandmother Indira Gandhi and his great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, who were genuinely loved people’s icons.
In the present milieu, Congress has been unable to provide a counter narrative to Modi’s definition of strident nationalism and patriotism. Nor has it been able to articulate the Congress ideology to the people and take it to them.
The most important reason for the Congress failure is that Rahul’s image makers have failed to show him as a credible prime ministerial candidate versus the larger-than-life Modi. Rahul stands short in comparison the cult figure Modi has been become, thanks to his strategic profiling.