By Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari
It is not exactly as if the beleaguered Congress is taking the fight to the enemy territory when the Grand Old Party will have an All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in April in Gujarat, which has come to be known as ‘Modiland’.
As of now, it is more an attempt to revamp and revitalize the party when nothing is going right for the organisation and its leader, Rahul Gandhi, who has emerged as the main challenger to the ruling dispensation despite umpteen setbacks.
It is to be seen whether the land of the Mahatma will be able to give a sense of purpose to the GOP, going through its worst crisis following Independence. But it does show that the badly battered party has not given up its fight
Undoubtedly, there are questions galore when the resurgent BJP is on a roll after the successive victories in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Delhi and the world's largest political party appears indefatigable.
What is important is that the opposition party is putting its thinking cap on to find a way out of the dark. It’s now faced with a world that has turned topsy-turvy, and the ideas and ideals that helped the party lead the freedom struggle don’t seem to matter much.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned out to be the chief tormentor of the party since May 2014, bringing to the national scene a new vocabulary and grammar. He remains at his combative best.
Gujarat is a prime example of what is wrong and what is right with the party which has been out of power there for the past three decades. The state was a fruit ripe to the plucked by the Congress when the Godhra train incident happened and changed the entire landscape some 25 years ago. Despite so many setbacks since then, the Congress vote share in Gujarat is now at around 31 percent, which is no mean achievement.
Rahul Gandhi’s biggest strength is his never-say-die spirit. Even Prashant Kishor, not known to be a great admirer of the Congress and its leader, had once admitted that if there was any other leader, including Modi, in place of Gandhi, he would have given up if he had faced so many reverses one after the other for over a decade. Tenacity counts.
Whether Rahul Gandhi would be able to become the PM one day is an immaterial question; the fact that the PM often attacks the Congress and generally ignores the regional parties is a point to ponder about the threat as perceived by the ruling party. Politics is always not what is seen in the headlines in the days of the media management.
What is significant about the Ahmedabad AICC meeting, scheduled on April 8 and 9, is that it is being held at a time when Gandhi has emerged as the top de facto leader of the party and there is no challenger. The reshuffle of the AICC secretariat carried out recently is a signal that the Sonia era has finally ended and it is the Rahul era, totally, completely, wholly.
The North and South, as well as the East and West stretches, marked the Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, signifying the biggest public outreach in modern times, and changed the perception about Gandhi being a reluctant politician to one who is a determined leader, genuinely committed to inclusive politics.
But what is equally important in politics, and more so in 21st century politics, is an effective strategy and a compelling narrative that offers a new deal to the masses as well as a well-knit organisation that can turn the dream into a reality.
To put it mildly, Congress has a long way to go on this count faced with the aggressive BJP juggernaut. The bane of the Congress is the lack of an effective organisation at various levels and a committed cadre of workers, despite the fact that it still enjoys goodwill at the grassroots level. Remote villages in the South are still in the awe of ‘Indira Amma’, even 40 years after the assassination of the late Prime Minister.
It is not to say how much the grass is greener on the other side, but it is a fact that the PM as well as Home Minister Amit Shah have turned the BJP into an effective election war machine, unparalleled in the annals of independent India, where the focus is on winning the next poll, whether it is that of the panchayat or parliament.
BJP chief J P Nadda’s remarks in the midst of the last Lok Sabha elections suggesting that the party no longer needs the services of the RSS for election management are proof of the confidence of the ruling party. It is equally a challenge to the opposition, especially the Congress, on getting its act together on a war footing.
(Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari are journalists.)
Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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