In order to save the country from slipping into a one party rule, the revival of Congress, with or without the Gandhi's is the need of the hour.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi ended the month-long uncertainty and put an end to the party’s dependence on Gandhi family by his resignation from party’s top post on 3 July. The question that is being asked is whether he presided over the liquidation of the 134-year-old Congress party or has he just precipitated a crisis that may help to strengthen and invigorate the organisation to remain politically relevant in the changed political scenario of the country?
Will the Congress go the Janata Party and the Janata Dal way or not is the proverbial million-dollar question that is currently being asked at politically interested circles and conscientious forums. Nobody seems to have an answer at present but a churning is definitely on and what emerges is hidden in the realm of the unknown.
All political parties in the country have split and disintegrated with the exception of the BJP or its earlier avatar Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). The Congress, after independence faced a major split in 1969 and a minor one in 1978 but in both cases the party led by the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi became the real Congress in no time. Even the Communist Party of India has split many times and we have at least three Communist parties today.
The BJP has been able to avoid this fate because of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that has been keeping the party together, egos of the leaders under check and ambitions under control. In a way, RSS has been a disciplining cord that has kept the BJP and its earlier avatar BJS from breaking.
Gandhis in a way performed the role of the RSS for the Congress keeping the party together but now with Rahul Gandhi’s decision to step down and also ensuring that none of the members of the Gandhi family has any role in influencing the process of internal churning in the organisation, the scenario has radically changed.
In his letter, young Gandhi has listed reasons for the historic defeat of the Congress party in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls in which the party was literally wiped out of north India particularly in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat that once were the mainstay of the party.
In the new scenario, choices before the Congress are limited and options are not many. It will need to develop mechanisms and safety valves that does not stifle constructive debate yet does not allow it to turn into personal battles.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) needs to deliberate on the challenges before the country because unless the country’s oldest party is not clear about the dangers to the idea of India that the party had evolved in last seven decades, it would never be able to have a goal that would unite party cadres and leaders.
In a succinct manner, Gandhi has outlined the battle ahead for the Congress and dangers that are before the country. He has also suggested a pathway that can help in rebuilding the organisation and turning it into a fighting machine. “The attack on our country and our cherished Constitution that is taking place is designed to destroy the fabric of our nation”, he has pointed out.
Outlining the reasons for the poor performance of the party, Gandhi said that a free and fair election requires the neutrality of a country’s institutions; an election cannot be fair without arbiters – a free press, an independent judiciary, and a transparent election commission that is objective and neutral. Nor can an election be free if one party has a complete monopoly on financial resources, he asserted.
The Indian nation must unite to reclaim and resuscitate our institutions. The instrument of this resuscitation will be the Congress party, he said and suggested that to achieve this important task, the Congress Party must radically transform itself. Today the BJP is systematically crushing the voice of the Indian people.
While many in the party feel that the Congress is unthinkable without the Gandhi's, who kept the party together- a kind of glue that binds them closely- yet there are many who are convinced that the party would chart out a path to emerge stronger to defend the idea of India that was conceived, shaped and consolidated by leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and many more along with millions of party workers.
Undoubtedly, the Congress is facing its worst ever crisis with no single leader having a pan-India image or appeal at hand to lead the party. Therefore, there has to be a strategy in place that can build a couple of leaders over time.
Experience and energy need to be combined and used in a manner that the two can act complimentary to each other instead of working at cross purposes. There is a bigger responsibility on experienced and senior leaders to evolve a consensus on the party’s ideological path and a programme of action for the next decade.
An interim working president should be appointed by the CWC at its next meeting who should not only attend to day to day party work but should also prepare a roadmap for the next session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) where a new party chief along with half of the CWC members should be elected. The party’s ideological path and line of action for constructive struggle among the people should be discussed at the AICC session.
It would be very unfortunate if the Congress is allowed to disappear and disintegrate. Therefore, revival of the Congress with or without the Gandhi's is the need of the hour because the country cannot be allowed to slip into a one-party rule.
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Satish Misra was Senior Fellow at ORF. He has been a journalist for many years. He has a PhD in International Affairs from Humboldt University ...
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