Without a Gandhi at the top, India’s Congress Party isincreasingly looking and acting like a headless chicken. Since its debacle in the recent GeneralElections, there has been a deluge of desertions from the party. Apparently, Narendra Modi’s vision of a’Congress mukt Bharat’ (Congress-free India) was no idle boast after all.
The party that led India to freedom under stalwarts likeMahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad and numerous others offeringimmense sacrifices and governed India for nearly five decades has perhaps neverfaced a greater challenge to its existence in its long and illustrious history.
It has become so weak and feeble that the BJP has had theaudacity to openly poach its legislators, reportedly picking them up for a coolRs 25 crores, bringing down the Congress-JD (S) coalition government inKarnataka. In Goa, the entire Congresslegislature party merged itself with the BJP.
The twin crises in Karnataka and Goa not just point to theexistential crisis in the grand old party, it also underscores theall-pervasive culture of political opportunism and moral bankruptcy in India’spolitics.
No principles, no ideological convictions and, above all, noethics seem to matter with politicians changing ideologies like clothes, effortlesslymoving from left to right and from secular values to a Hindu supremacistworldview. All that matters is the moneythat the BJP now seems to have in abundance and throws around with utterbrazenness.
The fact that 94% of political funding, corporate donations,to be precise, are now cornered by the BJP, coupled with the most unabashed useof government machinery also helps the party muscle and manipulate its quarry.According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, while the ruling party receiveda whopping Rs 916 crores in corporate donations, the Congress received a paltryRs 55 crores during the 2016-2018 period. But all this is like chickenfeed compared to what the ruling partyreceived anonymously through electoral bonds, a clever invention of formerfinance minister Arun Jaitely.
According to a Wire report, between March 1, 2018 to May 10,2019 electoral bonds worth Rs 5,800 crores were bought by anonymousdonors. Of these, bonds worth Rs 4,444crores were purchased by anonymous corporate donors between March 1 and May 10,2019 — right in the middle of 2019 General elections.
Again most of these funds, no surprises there, went to thesaffron party. This massive war chest ofnearly Rs 6,000 crores provided by big corporates, as Siddharth Varadarajan ofthe Wire argues, helps Modi fight a presidential-style election defeating acrumbling Congress again and again.
There was a time when the Congress used to be favoured thusby corporates. But the disappearingmoneybags are only symptomatic of the greater malaise afflicting the party.Frankly, with its very existence on the line, raising money is the least of theparty’s concerns right now.
Rahul Gandhi’s resignation as the Congress chief and theparty’s unwillingness or inability to find a successor all this while onlyseems to embolden the Hindutva brigade that is hell-bent on raising the saffronflag in every state at any price.
With the Gandhi scion away and his mother being unwell, theCongress and its giant pool of talent, networks and contacts spread in thelength and breadth of the country present a tempting target for the BJP. And the longer Rahul remains away andunwilling to lead and the rest of the party unable to reconcile itself to theidea of a Congress sans Gandhis the harder it would be for the party to reviveitself and face the daunting challenges of the future.
Ideally, Rahul’s decision to leave should have been acceptedand respected with graciousness by the party and a successor should have beenpromptly found. This is what happens inmature democracies after a leader fails to deliver in an election.
We saw it happen recently in the UK with the oppositionLabour’s young leader Ed Milliband stepping down after the defeat in the lastGeneral Election making way for Jeremy Corbyn.
After all, Rahul has tried his best, especially over thepast couple of years, investing himself totally in bravely taking on the BJPled by Modi with great conviction and dignity. It is a tragedy it failed to convince India’s voters in enoughnumbers.
What the Congress confronts is hardly an idealsituation. The trouble is, the Congressis not like any other political party. Without a Gandhi at the top, it just melts down in a heap. And this has been historically proven, timeand time again.
As analyst Swaminathan Aiyar notes rather uncharitably, “The(Congress) party has long been a bunch of opportunists held together only bydependence on the Gandhis to attain power. Without that glue, the party willdisintegrate. I am amused by those nostalgic for Nehruvian secularism who thinka Congress minus the Gandhis will combat Modi’s rise. Sorry, all past attemptsto create a Congress minus the Gandhis have failed.”
Unfortunate but true. A Congress without a Gandhi may sound like a good and suitablydemocratic idea but the idea has never worked. The party will simply comeunstuck with numerous regional heavyweights turning on each other, just asregional satraps had turned on each other in the twilight years of the Mughalempire.
The Gandhis do not merely offer gravitas and identity to theCongress that continues to be a colourful melting pot and microcosm of India,mirroring its diversity, they may be the best bet to hold it together andreturn the country to sanity and its inclusive democratic traditions andideals.
If the Congress is to survive as a viable political anddemocratic force, it is imperative that either Rahul Gandhi is persuaded toreturn or Sonia Gandhi is convinced to take charge of the party until a newleadership emerges. After all, Sonia led the party to victory twice, in 2004and 2009. She proved that the Congress needs the family to win elections.Unfortunately, she has been battling serious health issues for quite some yearsnow.
Her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi, has a natural flair andcharisma to step into her brother’s shoes. She proved it once again with herpowerful and instinctive reaction to the Sonbhadra massacre of tribals in UttarPradesh this past week. Unlike herreticent brother, she is a natural born politician and seems to revel in themedia glare and is totally at ease with the hoi polloi.
She is immensely articulate, charming and has an aura of herown which television cameras naturally love. Unfortunately for Priyanka though,her husband Robert Vadra, entangled as he has been with numerous cases underthis government, may turn out to be the proverbial millstone around her neck.
The Congress needs to resolve its leadership at the earliestpossible, before more damage is done. With its national presence, inclusive politics and politicalinfrastructure, the Congress alone among the assorted opposition parties hasthe potential and wherewithal to take on the BJP and save the country from theclutches of religious bigots and fascists.
While Rahul’s decision to step down is laudable and may havebeen inspired by highest democratic traditions, he needs to pay heed to theappeals made by the thousands of Congress workers. More important, this is theneed of the hour.
Rahul is best qualified to finish what he started, takingthis mission to its logical conclusion and return India to its original path ofdemocracy, inclusion and social justice that was imagined by the country’sfounding fathers. A ‘Congress-free India’ may be music to some ears but itwould be bad news for the world’s largest democracy.
Aijaz Zaka Syed is a former editor. Email:Aijaz.syed@hotmail.comTwitter: @AijazZaka