Everyone knows in India that Congress is in doldrums. Everyone also knows who is responsible for their plight today, the Gandhi family. The only people that don’t want to accept this reality at least in public are the leftover leaders in Congress. There can be various reasons for that. They might either be seeing a personal opportunity for themselves in the party staying close to Rahul Gandhi or they might not be confident of winning any election on their own merit or they just have a few years left of their political career and don’t want to be adventurous like Ghulam Nabi Azad or they see Congress as a safe place to continue their corrupt practices or they are just naive dreaming of Congress coming to power in 2024.
There has been a steady exodus of good leaders from Congress and everyone for the most part felt that the high command which is nothing but the first family was not accessible to them and did not want to hear anyone outside the coterie that keeps whispering in their ears information and strategies that were utterly wrong. None of them felt respected. Several of these people were very competent leaders who have won several elections for Congress. Who was responsible for the leaving of nearly around seventy such leaders over the last few years? It was the Gandhi family mainly Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi.
Congress still enjoys a decent ground worker base across India although they are in complete disarray as an organization in almost all states except for a couple, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and to some extent Karnataka. Bad strategies election after election, lack of a credible face in the high command in the eyes of the public, internal fights in states due to a weak central leadership, total failure in coming up with the right narrative are all the reasons for the steep decline. Who is responsible for all this? It’s again the Gandhi family who never want to let go of the reins of this party even at the cost of the destruction of the party. The National Herald case questioning by the Enforcement Directorate which the Congress itself publicized through their drama on the streets has not helped them improve their credibility in the eyes of the people. Most of India has stopped taking RaGa seriously which reflects in the very poor results in the last two general elections and even in several state elections. Congress is planning a long Padayatra but it will not help as there is no credible charismatic leader acting as the fulcrum like a Jagan Reddy or K. Annamalai.
After several chintan shivirs failing, it is being touted that they are going to have the election for the new President in October or so. It is going to be the same drama of Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi refusing to take the hot seat and other chamchas saying that only the Gandhis can lead them to victory etc. Even if actually a non-Gandhi is made the President, the Gandhi family will have the remote in their hands anyways. Ashok Gehlot’s name is making the rounds and rightly so, as he will fit this role really well. The likes of Sachin Pilot or a Shashi Tharoor will never make it. The Congress will continue to remain the same and operate the same way. BJP wouldn’t mind this at all.
The Congress legacy might stand a chance to survive if some of their leaders who genuinely want to serve the public break away from the Gandhi family led party and form a new party with a professional set up and go to the public with their narrative. Public might consider listening to what they have to say. I am not sure if anyone in the party today have the courage to do what Indira Gandhi did long time ago. She had the courage to break away in 1969 from the “Old” Congress and got significant success. However, she had the charisma and the skill to connect with the people pan India which is totally missing in the party today. Rahul or Priyanka is no Indira Gandhi to revive the party single handed nor are the likes of Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Milind Deora, and G23 leaders etc. as bold enough to repeat what happened in 1969 albeit this will be in the reverse direction. Although this seems very unlikely and might remain just a hypothesis, let’s wait and watch!