Indian National Congress, Its Heir Apparent, and Indian Politics


Congress party’s debacle in the recently concluded state elections was on expected lines for many independent observers like me who watch politics from a distance.  The Party, which governed India, like always, baring few aberrations here and there, is today struggling to survive.

To begin with, during post-independence era, Congress ruled the country without a hitch because of lack of credible opposition.  The sympathy wave post deaths of its leaders too brought it back to power twice.  It faced real opposition only in the late 70s. Then, the only instance when the opposition was able to complete its full term was from 1998 to 2004 when Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the prime minister and completed its full term.  Therefore, by and large, Congress really had its way when it came to ruling the country.

The Nehru-Gandhi family has had always been the glue of the party, and things have always revolved around it.  This has encouraged sycophancy, which in turn has made the party vulnerable to management problems like poor decision making.

Some musty decisions taken in the near past have cost the party heavily.  This took away all the goodwill it enjoyed during UPA1.  The staleness was evident when Congress party announced quota for Muslims of UP.  Muslims understood their fallacious intent and completely shunned the Congress party.  Nevertheless, UP campaign of the party was very aggressive, but without genuineness and was always viewed with a doubt by the UP voter.  Instead an honest appeal to the voters without any political posturing could have garnered them more votes.  In fact, Mr. Rahul Gandhi would have done much better without Digvijay Singh and Salman Khurshid in UP. 

Sycophants usually lack talent and leadership qualities.  Look around any Gandhi and you will see people with zero mass appeal. This style of functioning has created a void between its voters and central leadership. The void became so deep and wide that The Gandhis couldn’t save their own turf.

Another issue Congress has is lethargy.  They take ages to take decisions.  UPA-1 in its common minimum program promised to spent 6% on education and 2-3% on healthcare.  Other issues like administrative reforms, judicial reforms, panchayati raj, women reservation, separate Telangana state have been in limbo, even after eight long years.

Dynastic politics, due to its very existence at the top, is something that Congress has not been able to discourage in the party. This has also alienated the voters.  Goa is a classic example of this with 11 out of 40 seats went to few families of Congress members.  This made voters angry, and they aggressively voted against the party.

Congress party’s heir apparent, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, should start doing things on his own and stop taking advice from others.  After all, he is in his 40s and can understand good versus evil.  He should take control, come out in the open, deal with the issues head on, make some mistakes, and learn from them.  He should brew his own ideas instead of following others.  He should think and should act like a leader if he wishes to be one.

Congress might face tough times going forward.  BJP, on the other hand, doesn’t look very strong and therefore we may not see coalition politics ending very soon, ahh!  What a pity?