Instead of treating seniors as dissenters and punishing them, Sonia should value their letter as a turning point for the party
Everybody had hoped that a slumberous Congress was indeed shaking itself back to relevance when 23 true blue veterans openly asked the leadership to act to live or procrastinate and perish. But the Gandhis, for long inured to being the sole decision-makers of the party that they feel is their inheritance, have misread their well-meaning intentions as uncivil disobedience. And interim chief Sonia Gandhi is now going about systematically clipping their wings as if they were traitors to the cause. Maybe the dynastic cause, for they don’t see potential in the leadership of her children, but certainly not the party’s. For these leaders, through their letter, had only suggested ways and means of reviving the Congress, that too staying within the provisions and democratic processes already laid down in the party’s constitution, than lapse into oblivion. They were worried that they had ceded the Opposition space to others nationally, were precariously perched in some States and had become the B-team in others as allies. So the hitback is sad news for the party, primarily its leadership, which has probably lost its last chance to self-correct, rise above ego, value honest counsel and appear selfless in the interest of a larger political legacy. Even if these men are moved out, they would not have anything to lose but the Gandhis might. In fact, raising their voice one more time, knowing they would be sidetracked, senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal said that without elections to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and inner party democracy, the Congress would continue to “sit in the Opposition for the next 50 years.” Sonia may have publicly said “let bygones be bygones” but her recent actions contradict that spirit. She has made unquestioning leader Jairam Ramesh the party’s chief whip. She has formed a committee for the Rajya Sabha with party treasurer and her political advisor Ahmed Patel and KC Venugopal. This effectively sidelines Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and deputy leader Anand Sharma in the Upper House, both of whom were instrumental in writing the letter. Azad’s term ends in February 2021 and ignoring him would mean overlooking his contribution in holding the party together in Jammu and Kashmir or his fiery zeal in taking on the BJP in the Upper House. One would still remember his well-articulated speech against the abrogation of Article 370 there. In the Lok Sabha, she has taken off co-writers Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari from the limelight even at the cost of losing orators. And there are calls to cut UP leader Jitin Prasada to size because he was a signatory.
The Congress last held CWC elections 1998 and understandably this is the reason for the turmoil and impatience in the party where worthy leaders, who have worked their way up from the ground, have no say whatsoever. They are cut off by a sedimentary layer of loyal courtiers, who are interested in simply playing along as long as their posts are secure. In fact, the faces in CWC are some of the oldest and have remained unchanged. It has been so long that ad hocism and entitlement seem more the norm than exception. So Azad is right in pointing out that those opposing CWC elections “are afraid of losing their positions as they got their posts via appointment cards.” Elections also ensure dynamism and give everybody a shot at stakeholdership and the encouragement to rebuild and grow the party. But what seems to have upset Sonia is his observation that elections, while showing up relative strengths of each leader based on his performance, would also expose the party president, who may not even have “one per cent” support. This is being read as a broadside against her son Rahul, whose stubborn strategies have not quite washed with the wisened seniors. They want "full-time, visible" leadership, a clear reference to the disembodied presence of the Gandhi scion on social media, while being absent from the ground. They feel he should give up his personal attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he is not only high on the popularity charts but has also captured the imagination of the youth, clearly a comment on Rahul’s failure in that department. The fact that they suggested "collective leadership" and stressed that the Gandhis can still be an integral part of it — given their past contribution — was a subtle hint that the organisation was bigger than the individual. By calling for inner party elections at every level and empowerment of State units, they want to knit a national matrix that lies in tatters at present. There’s no doubt that the central leadership has had little role to play in States where the party is in power or is an alliance partner. That success purely goes to the solidity of the State leaders like Capt Amarinder Singh, who have been fairly autonomous in their ways and cannot be ignored because of their performance. Sonia shouldn’t see the letter writers as rebels, or worse, attribute ulterior motives to them simply because none has ever done this before. Besides, most are in their sunset years, having lived and worked off the party and certainly aren’t looking at temptations from across the political divide. It is about their last-ditch effort to save the party, occupy the alternative liberal space that is being encroached upon by the BJP and spearhead a larger Opposition unity. She would leave a lasting legacy if she were to treat this as a turning point. Otherwise, she would just be seen as a protector of a family estate that would have no more than a backyard to lord over. And right now, partymen may be with the Gandhis but Congress voters are not.
