‘Bharat Jodi’ and ‘Congress Jodi’ as Opportunities

The current level of interest in the Indian National Congress party is due to two events: india couple travelIn which Rahul Gandhi is leading a 150-day march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to “unify India”, and announced election for the post of party president over a period of four weeks, ending on October 19.

tide

Both developments promised to do away with the media commentary on the party’s failure to improve its electoral vote share since 2014 and its habit of repeatedly losing state assembly elections in recent years. He was much needed. It is true that the Congress has bounced back from similar setbacks in the past – electorally, after defeats in 1977 and 1989, politically after a trough between 1996 and 2004, and even in 1984 Even after the tragic assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. 1991 (both were soon followed by Congress general election victories). But the crisis of seemingly aimless drift has persisted for more than three years after Rahul Gandhi resigned from the presidency following the 2019 election defeat, and finally, there are two ways to stop it.

The Congress party is engaged in a struggle for existence in many ways to protect the idea of ​​India enshrined in the Constitution. The India Jodi Yatra has a very important contribution in this endeavour; The ongoing march, and interactions with ordinary citizens along the way, can help define and shape the message. But the struggle for the soul of India will not end Travel ends. While the Congress is working with everyone including other parties (it was Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, MK Stalin, who launched Travel Symbolically handing over the national flag to Rahul Gandhi), any such major activity by non-political individuals and civil society groups, political party is undoubtedly a political message. And that message is that Congress is the party that can unite India and stop the process of dividing Indians on the basis of religion, caste and language – a process that the ruling party is enthusiastically promoting.

‘Name changing’ government

The success of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in putting Hindutva in the foreground as its leitmotiv, while applying to itself the populist welfareism that had been the hallmark of previous Congress governments, helped define and shape its message for the Congress. makes it more necessary. In my view, it can only be one of “inclusive India” – an India that works for all irrespective of religion, region, language or caste, as opposed to the Sangh Parivar’s “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan”. . As for welfare, the Congress can make two arguments: first, that its welfare projects were based on treating Indians as citizens with rights entitled to these benefits, while the BJP government treated them only as those beneficiaries. See what is believed. Be “grateful” to the Prime Minister and his party for their (albeit funded by taxpayers) generosity. And second, while the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance both opened bank accounts, made welfare payments, and ran development programs, Congress not only prepared most of these plans first but oversaw them through competent ministers and administrators, including The party is still plentiful. The BJP has only taken him over and changed his name. They have been a name changing government, not a game changing government.

presidential election

It is an internal exercise when it comes to the party’s presidential election, but it also represents an opportunity to ignite wider public interest in Congress and energize its party workers. Now that the Gandhi family has decided to pull out of the election, the prospect of many candidates putting forth their vision for the party and the nation and submitting themselves for a democratic vote is encouraging. It also points to the fact that no other Indian political party has a comparable process to determine its future leadership, and by abiding by its constitution, the Congress can set a standard that will ultimately help other parties. under the sun of internal democracy.

The main challenge is that whoever is elected, Congress must find a way to appeal to the 19% of voters who voted for the party in both 2014 and 2019 and may be considered staunch “true believers”. Celebration. The party will have to find a way to appeal to those who did not vote for it in those two elections and switch to the BJP, most of whom did so for reasons other than Hindutva. This will require a leader who looks beyond history to speak out about the aspirations of a young India – one who firmly believes that the party can lead the country on the path of a better society, one that the world can do. Willing to take the opportunities presented. 21st century.

If the new president is purely an organizational figure, while he may be able to lead the workers and strengthen the party’s foundation, he may be unable to inspire wider interest and bring in the support of more voters in the party. . If the president is a charismatic figure, but has poor organizational skills, while he is personally appealing to national voters, it is perfectly helpful to help him translate his charisma and natural appeal into electoral results. Party machinery is unlikely to be found. The challenge for the Congress is to articulate a positive and aspirational vision for the nation and to correct the organizational and structural deficiencies that have hindered its recent efforts.

The answer lies in a combination of effective leadership and organizational reform, reducing the “high command” culture in the party, decentralizing power, and truly empowering the party’s grassroots functionaries. For example, there’s no reason why district Congress chiefs should be approved by the party president in New Delhi, nor for a state Congress chief to be accountable to a general secretary kneeling down his neck from the national capital. Re-imagining the organization and delegating powers to state leaders would not only free the new leader from the heavy burden of over-administration, but would also help in creating a strong state leadership that undermined the national appeal of the Congress in earlier eras.

catalyst for reforms

In the context of the presidential election, a new leader, who has not been entangled within the existing system for too long, may emerge who can do both – energize a party that definitely needs it and, at the same time, Appeal More voters than Congress succeeded in the last few elections. A democratic contest would bring vibrancy at all levels by fostering a healthy and constructive discussion on reforms – around proposals such as decentralization of power and authority, giving state units a free hand in the appointment of office-bearers and district presidents, and repairing the breakdown of national Advisory mechanisms within Congress through a democratic and collective decision-making process at the level (which would include reviving the parliamentary board provided for in the party constitution as well as the Congress Working Committee elections).

It can be done, and Congress can. The people of India, frustrated by the BJP’s stifling dominance and increasingly divisive rule, we need to demonstrate both “Bharat Jodi” and “Congress Jodi”. Both the yatra and the upcoming elections are opportunities that we must take advantage of decisively in the national interest. India also deserves no less.

Shashi Tharoor of the Congress party has been elected to the Lok Sabha thrice from Thiruvananthapuram. He is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology and the Founder-President of the All India Professional Congress. He has written 24 books including a biography of Nehru and the future life of Ambedkar.