Congress’ decline is luminous — This is clear even without a self-delusional introspection

Rahul Gandhi (file image) REUTERS/Adnan Abidi - RC1378448470

The Congress is back in the news again, and it is making headlines for the wrong reasons. Again. Sounds like a moth-eaten tale you have heard a million times before? That’s no surprise, right?

As the results of the assembly elections to five states started pouring in on March 10, all Congress supporters were a fidgety, nervous lot. This was indeed an election that could give the party a lifeline, or it would signal its ineluctable demise.

Their worst apprehensions have unfortunately now come true; the Congress got trounced in all states (Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur, and Goa) defying the abject expectations of the die-hard pessimists as well. This is a humiliating low. It may not be the final nail in the coffin yet, but the grand old party is in rigor mortis — make no mistake about it.

The fact is that democracy is irrational, unpredictable, and often needs one dramatic event to change the electoral dynamics, or a sudden explosion of repressed sentiments that voters camouflage, which find a resounding expression. Or a black swan moment. There are many examples of such unexpected reversals; Brexit is one, as is the victory of a rank outsider, seen as anti-Republican once-Democrat to the White House in Donald Trump. It prompted Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton (described by US President Barack Obama as the “most qualified candidate for the job”) backed by all pollsters to sweep the presidential elections to write a book, What Happened.

That’s exactly what many Congressmen are contemplating today or anxiously brooding about: What happened? Ideally they should know. But delusions of grandeur is an assured fundamental right under the Indian Constitution.

The Congress’ decline is luminous. Even in its attenuated form in 2017 it swept Punjab under Captain Amarinder Singh, and became the largest party almost touching the half-way mark in Goa and Manipur (which it would gleefully surrender to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on account of its lackadaisical attitude). Of course, it was deracinated in the Hindi heartland states of UP and Uttarakhand which were sizzling yet in the saffron wave generated by Narendra Modi’s euphoric triumph in 2014. But yet, it was a middling performance.

Five years later doomsday appears to stare the party in the mirror. The Congress is like a train wreck. Smashed into a pulp. Partly by the BJP, partly, political suicide. I sometimes wonder what the founding fathers of this political organisation which liberated India from the tyrannical British in 1947 think about it from the heavens above. Those in Lutyens’ Delhi, however, frankly care a damn.

After darkness set in on March 10 with Yogi Adityanath making his victory speech, there were many who began writing about the grand old party’s obituary. ‘Existential crisis’ came back into circulation. It was understandable. Even an avid BJP supporter I know told me “I am crestfallen. Congress cannot be allowed to die”. I joked with him; “These defeats are part of a deeper thought-out political strategy. The Congress will lose all state elections till 2023, and then win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on a sympathy wave from people like yourselves”.

Surprisingly, he was not amused by my wisecrack. Not surprisingly, a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting was hurriedly summoned to investigate the underwhelming performance. After a five-hour marathon meeting which ideally should have been telecast live, the conclusion was earth-shattering: The Congress agreed to a Chintan-Shivir (a brain-storming session). Everyone seemed palpably satisfied with this specious grand conclusion. Clearly, the more things change, the more they remain the same. This was Groundhog Day on a forever loop.

On a serious note, the Congress does not need some self-delusional introspection that usually goes nowhere. The famous AK Antony Report after the 2014 Lok Sabha debacle has been probably seen by five-and-a-half eyes by now only. The party needs a drastic reconstruction. An implant of moral fibre if that was possible, will help.

At the time of writing, Kapil Sibal who has shepherded the G-23 movement calling for internal reforms and a non-Gandhi leadership at the helm has asked for an immediate implementation of the above changes. The CWC has made a gargantuan concession by its austere standards; it has agreed to holding the AICC elections to the CWC and the Congress President ahead by a few months (this after, of course, postponing it for three years).

Meanwhile, loyalists (they are also called supine sycophants in the Indian political dictionary) want Rahul Gandhi to become the President for five years (which means effectively he will have been Congress President for 10 years by 2027). Rahul Gandhi who famously resigned in 2019 promising never to return has since been the unofficial commander-in-chief of the Congress, deciding to topple Singh in Punjab without even obtaining a perfunctory acquiescence from the CWC.

The future for the Congress is akin to that of a scientist taking on a T-Rex dinosaur with an algorithm for defense. Danger lurks, and unless there is an outstanding escape route or some real muscles and ingenuity along the way, the party that once inspired Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela might soon become just another chapter to remember.

Sanjay Jha is former National Spokesperson of the Congress, and author of The Great Unravelling: India After 2014. Twitter: @JhaSanjay.

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.