Even as the Congress is trying to protect its vice-president Rahul Gandhi with respect to the drubbing the party received in the 16th lok Sabha polls, Malayalam daily Chandrika, the mouthpiece of its long-standing ally Muslim league, has launched a scathing attack against him for leading the UPA into the humiliating debacle.
Stating that the Congress needed to have a purging to set its house in order, the Chandrika editorial titled ‘What Congress needs is radical change’ published on Wednesday said, “Firstly, the Congress should understand that Rahul’s one-man-show did not do any good to the party (in the election).”
The editorial has embarrassed Kerala’s Congress leadership as it has never expected the Muslim league, its staunchest ally, to adopt an indirect route to mount such an attack on Rahul. The Muslim league leadership has already endorsed the paper’s stand informally, though its meet for analysing poll results is to be held only on June 2.
“While praising the efforts of Rahul to touch India’s heart, the Congress should have understood that his trips around the country were not enough to touch its soul,” the editorial said. It also criticised the Congress vice-president for refusing to trust experienced leaders in matters related to polls, while depending on a coterie of under-experienced young leaders.
“Often, leaders with decades of experience had to stand outside the gates (of the Congress war room). Even Jairam Ramesh, who had devised the formulae for elections in 2004 and 2009, was avoided. The Rahul Brigade refused to draw lessons from the defeats the party had suffered in several Assembly polls,” the editorial said.
That the Congress put Rahul, who never had the experience of handling any portfolio even in a State Government, in the lead for the election campaign made it easy for Narendra Modi to put into practice his hi-tech poll strategies, the paper complained, adding that the Congress also failed in cleverly using modern technology when compared to how Modi did it.
The paper has not cared to limit the responsibility for the poll debacle to just Rahul Gandhi, but has attacked the Congress party also by saying that several factors like an obvious lack of leadership except in Kerala, absence of dependable regional allies, wrong economic policies, corruption and administrative failure had contributed to the defeat in the election.
“The Congress, which had in the past fought elections on the basis of effective slogans like ‘garibi hatao’, did not have anything like it this time for facing the election,” the editorial said. It concludes the attack saying the Congress cannot avoid a treatment of purging if it really wants to resurrect itself.
Muslim league’s State general secretary KPA Majeed indirectly endorsed the paper’s editorial saying that it need not hurt anyone. “Every paper will have its perspective on issues like this. However, there is no mention in it which should hurt anybody. As far as the party is concerned, we are meeting on June 2 (to analyse the poll results),” he said.
No official response has come from Kerala’s Congress leadership to the criticisms of Rahul and the party, but the reaction from its unit in Kozhikode, where Chandrika and Muslim league are headquartered, was acerbic. “The Muslim league should remember that its top leaders have lost polls too,” said Congress’ Kozhikode district president KC Abu.
The Muslim league is the biggest ally of the Congress in the ruling UDF it heads in Kerala and it is also a minor constituent of the UPA. In the 16th lok Sabha election, it had retained the Malappuram and Ponnani seats it has been winning consistently — except on one occasion in recent past — as part of the UDF by convincing margins despite the adverse circumstances.