Rahul Gandhi’s elevation as Congress president remains uncertain. There are too many ifs and buts
Senior Congress leader Makhan lal Fotedar’s forthcoming book, The Chinar leaves, has once again brought to the fore the discomfort between the old and the new guard in the 130-year old Congress. Mr Fotedar is only voicing a desperation that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is not inspiring and he is not a 24x7 politician.
The veteran Congress Working Committee member and a long-time Gandhi family loyalist has told an interviewer recently that the Congress is again on the verge of collapse, 16 years after Congress president Sonia Gandhi took over. “However, this time, there is no saviour”, he said.
There’s no doubt that Mr Fotedar is feeling frustrated, sidelined and dumped, but the Congress leadership has to sit up and see why he is emboldened to say these things. The leadership should also see why the Congress is struggling to enforce a generational change, while the BJP has successfully passed this phase, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking complete control of the party and the Government. While Mr Modi reversed his political untouchability after the Godhra massacre, with his well-crafted communication strategy, Mr Gandhi seems to have done just the opposite, despite the Gandhi surname.
Since last year, Ms Gandhi has virtually handed over the baton to her son. Since then, there has been a tug of war between the Sonia coterie and Mr Gandhi’s supporters, who are working at cross purposes. The status quo culture of the Gandhis has added to the chaos, as the Congress has not thrown out those that were responsible for the debacle .
While the younger generation is hopeful of finding a place in Mr Gandhi’s new team, the old guard is busy protecting its individual interests. There is a perception that Mr Gandhi is averse to leaders above 60 years of age in his team. The old guard is also unsure about the direction, and more so after the 2014 debacle. It has not yet been discussed in the All India Congress Committee.
As it happens, this is not the first time that this generational change is taking place. Indira Gandhi sidelined the Nehru generation of leaders like N Sanjiva Reddy, Morarji Desai and S Nijalingappa and built her own coterie. Rajiv Gandhi replaced Indira Gandhi’s coterie by Arun Singh, Arun Nehru, Oscar Fernandes and Ahmed Patel. Ms Gandhi chose her own advisors. So, this transition keeps on happening all the time.
While there can be no quarrel about Mr Gandhi choosing his own team, the anxiety is that he should choose the right people. So far, most of those he has chosen have proved to be not up to the mark, as in the case of State Congress presidents in Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar or Maharashtra.
First, the old guard is aghast that its supporters have been sidelined. This is not confined to one State; many senior leaders like Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh, Ajit Jogi and Captain Amarinder Singh feel that their supporters have been cut to size.
Second, while they had access to Ms Gandhi, of late the Congress president has directed them to talk to Mr Gandhi on every issue, but they are unable to approach him. The Rahul coterie feels that the old guard has developed vested interests and has even stalled Mr Gandhi becoming the Congress president this year.
Mr Fotedar is perhaps expressing his frustration when he told at an interview recently, “History is threatening to repeat itself. It is a matter of time before Soniaji’s and Rahul’s leadership is challenged from within the party. I will be observing closely how they stand up to this looming challenge, because Sonia is not Indira and Rahul is not Sanjay.”
But he is only echoing the sentiment expressed by many Congressmen in private. The effort is also to instill a fear in the Gandhi family. However, the time has not come for open revolt mainly because there is no one to lead the rebels. So they are just confined to talking in terms of ‘save the Congress.’
In such a scenario, the Congress leadership needs to do some surgery. First, is to arrest the unease and reassure the old guard. Second, is to build up the party. Third, is to strengthen the party in the States, particularly those going to polls next year. Fourth, is to identify and build good State-level leadership and get rid of the deadwood and have a mix of old and young leaders in Mr Gandhi’s new team. Fifth, is to prepare the party at the grassroots level and strengthen booth level activities. Above all, the party should try to see that those who had left the party and built up their own outfits could be brought back.