STRUGGLING TO REGAIN CONTROL
Rahul is trying to change the rules of engagement in the party and build a new team. Will he succeed?
Can Rahul Gandhi and his new team successfully change the rules of engagement in the party?
In the summer of 2010, Rahul Gandhi, the then general secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), addressed the party’s youth wing in Guwahati and asked them to speak up if they saw their seniors making mistakes. Acting on this advice, a few brave men made bold to point fingers at the functioning of several senior leaders only to find themselves marginalised within the party. They reached out to Rahul Gandhi but were stonewalled. “Follow the organisational system and seek help from the state unit first,” was the advice from his office.
More than a decade later, the Gandhi scion seems to have radically altered his thinking. On July 18, cricketerturned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was appointed president of the Punjab Congress Committee. Though Congress president Sonia Gandhi officially made the appointment, it’s an open secret that Rahul and his sister and AICC (All-India Congress Committee) general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi backed Sidhu to the hilt. Unlike Assam’s IYC leaders in 2010, Sidhu got unflinching support from Rahul in his rebellion against the Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh for over two years. The decision to make him PCC chief was taken despite strong resistance from Amarinder, a known Sonia loyalist.
It’s not just the elevation of Sidhu—a BJP defector who did not have any visible grip on the Congress organisation—but a series of decisions that the Gandhi siblings often take together, which indicate that Rahul may have just begun an “organisational cleansing” before officially taking charge of the party for a second time. The Congress presidential election is scheduled within this year. Though he has not said anything about contesting the poll as a presidential candidate, his aides are confident that the party has no choice but to elect him to stay united.
Rahul has never hidden his discomfort with the functioning style of several Congress veterans. Over the years, he came to accept that he would have to co-opt the old guard in the interest of the unity, stability and, at times, the financial health of the party. In 2019, when he resigned as Congress president after the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha poll, he openly expressed his annoyance with the senior leaders. He named P. Chidambaram, Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh for promoting their sons and claimed he was all alone in his battle against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Without saying it explicitly, he indicated what he would be seeking in future Congress leaders—the desire and capability to fight Modi and the BJP at all levels, and the
ability to draw public attention.
In this quest, he is even ready to import talent from outside. In January, he made BJP defector Nana Patole president of the Maharashtra Congress within three years of his joining the party. In Telangana, former ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) member Anumula Revanth Reddy, who spent time in the TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) and the TDP (Telugu Desam Party), was given charge of the party in July. He had joined the Congress in October 2017. In Uttarakhand, Ganesh Godiyal, a traditional Congressman but a relative unknown beyond the state, has been made party chief. Godiyal has in the past directly challenged Modi in his public discourse and has been critical of the senior state leadership, including Indira Hridayesh, who passed away in May. In Assam, where the party lost the assembly poll in May, Bhupen Bora has replaced Ripun Bora as Pradesh Congress Committee president. Bhupen, who is considered a Rahul favourite, was given charge despite speculation about other big names such as Debabrata Saikia, Pradyut Bordoloi and Gaurav Gogoi. In 2013, Rahul made him and Rana Goswami AICC secretaries, much to the surprise of many. Goswami has now been made one of the working presidents in Assam.
What seems to have fast-tracked Rahul’s bolder decision-making is the absence of Ahmed Patel, who died unexpectedly last year due to Covid. Political advisor to Sonia, he was the pivot around which all veterans rallied and through whom they could voice their concerns to the Congress president. With all the three Gandhis—Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka—in active politics, any political consultation now remains confined to them. Unlike in the past, they don’t depend on the information feedback mechanism the veterans often controlled. The central command system has
already changed, with K.C. Venugopal as the general secretary (organisation) and almost every state having younger AICC in-charges, from Jitendra Singh to Randeep Singh Surjewala, Ajay Maken and Manickam Tagore.
The key now will be whether this experiment and his team will yield Rahul the desired dividend. He has dabbled in such experiments before, empowering his chosen ones to strengthen the party and, if required, confront the seniors. In 2014, he sent Arun Singh, Sachin Pilot and Ashok Tanwar as party presidents in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana, respectively. While Pilot delivered a victory in the 2018 election, the other two failed to make a mark. Tanwar eventually quit the party. Pilot is now awaiting rehabilitation after leading a failed rebellion against Gehlot last year. After the exit of Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh and Jitin Prasada in Uttar Pradesh, all eyes are now on Rahul to see what he decides for Pilot’s future.
The Gandhi scion has not given any categorical hint that he is ready to become the 24x7 politician Indian politics demands. Inexplicable decision-making continues to be part of his public engagements. For instance, last December, a day before the Congress celebrated its 136th Foundation Day, Rahul took a flight to Italy, embarrassing the party. Though he has remained adamant on not returning to the top post, he hinted a change of heart during the campaigns for the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Kerala earlier this year. He said he was ready to take any role the party wanted, further confounding party colleagues.
Even though the Narendra Modi government has faced flak over its handling of the second wave of Covid and a downhill economy, there were no concerted efforts by Rahul and the Congress—the only national party in the Opposition—to reach out to other Opposition parties to launch a unified attack on the Union government. But when West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar held parleys with Opposition leaders, which many claim is an initiative to project a common candidate for next year’s presidential election, Rahul decided to make a delayed move. He even chaired a meeting of the Opposition leaders seeking adjournment of both houses over the Pegasus snooping episode. A dose of theatrics was also thrown in with Rahul riding a tractor to Parliament in support of the farmers’ protest.
What explains Rahul’s erratic political behaviour? Is there a method to what he does or, as several detractors in the party claim, does the party swing the way his mood swings? The unanimous verdict, however, is that it is a big mistake to expect him to behave like a typical Indian politician.
Most people who know him say he is not a hands-on politician; he prefers the system to redress grievances rather than soothe ruffled egos himself. For instance, every AICC general secretary in-charge and chief minister has his personal mobile number. However, he never responds to text messages that betray an individual’s personal interest. “Nothing annoys him more than squabbling leaders coming to him and seeking positions and power,” says a close aide.
The gap between Rahul’s actions and the party’s expectations was
RAHUL BELIEVES IN PROCESS RATHER THAN PERSONAL TOUCH TO SORT DIFFERENCES IN THE PARTY. HE DOES NOT FUNCTION THE WAY OTHER POLITICIANS IN INDIA DO
evident in his handling of the Punjab crisis as well. Rahul personally met a large number of Congress MLAs, including senior ministers, and his office meticulously took note on their views on the Sidhu-Amarinder feud. While both leaders expected a favourable hearing from Rahul, he avoided a personal meeting till he “had a resolution in sight”.
His decision not to meet the two Punjab leaders either individually or together was fuelled by the obsessive compulsion to reach a resolution through “proper channel”. Since he is not the Congress president, he did not want to send a wrong signal by meeting the two leaders one on one. He met Sidhu at Priyanka’s insistence but reportedly did not discuss anything political. Nor did he allow Sidhu to take a picture of them together like the one he posted with Priyanka on Twitter. Even when Amarinder’s emissary and election strategist Prashant Kishor came to meet him in Delhi, Rahul insisted that AICC general secretary in-charge Harish Rawat and Priyanka be present. “Such crisis needs handling that involves a leader’s personal touch. Senior leaders don’t open up in process-driven meetings. They prefer one-on-one meetings. A political party is neither a corporate house nor an NGO but Rahul doesn’t understand these nuances,” says a Congress Lok Sabha MP. In Rahul’s schema, the crisisresolution process begins with the general secretaries in-charge. According to his close aides, when Rahul appoints people to a post, he usually backs them to the hilt. He trusts them blindly, doesn’t interfere in their working, or entertain any rebellion against them. All he expects is that they deliver on the task they have been entrusted with. This explains why he did not interfere with AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh’s decision to tie up with the AIUDF (All India United Democratic Front) in Assam for the state poll even though several local Congress leaders advised him against it. While he gives his people a long rope, it doesn’t take him long to lose faith or deny patronage and access. There’s a long trail of confidants who have lost the privilege of proximity to Rahul. While most have fallen off his orbit for failing to deliver, some lost out because of their public display of proximity to him. Unadulterated yet silent loyalty has been a top benchmark for enjoying the Gandhi family’s patronage. The grapevine has it that the Gandhis were upset with Amarinder for allegedly backing a few of the group of 23 leaders who had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi last August seeking an overhaul of the party’s leadership and organisation. “The Family doesn’t forgive betrayal,” says a Congress Rajya Sabha MP.
That loyalty pays is reflected in the evolution of two leaders who have this quality in abundance—Rajya Sabha MP Mallikarjun Kharge and party general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal—Rahul’s current favourites. Kharge has emerged as one of the party’s most trusted troubleshooters, finding place in almost every top Congress committee while Venugopal is the man entrusted to execute all Rahul’s decisions and act as a bridge between him and the rest of the party.
Many even see him playing the role Ahmed Patel did for Sonia Gandhi, except that with all three members of the Gandhi family active in national politics, “the family doesn’t need another sounding board, they complement each other”, as a CWC (Congress Working Committee) member says. In the current scheme of things, Priyanka acts as Rahul’s political counsel, and both siblings work as a think-tank for their mother.
More than political counsel, what the Family needs is a path back to power. The Congress has been out of power at the Centre for seven years and has a vanishing footprint in most states. However, while this shrinking political capital is making many Congress leaders restless, Rahul seems in no hurry, especially as the Covid pandemic has limited political engagements. He is waiting for a favourable political environment. But will the country wait endlessly for the grand old party’s revival? ■