Anil Anand
Within three days of humiliating defeat in the five-state assemblies elections the interim president of the Congress, Mrs Sonia Gandhi convened the Congress Working Committee (CWC)- the highest decision making body of the over a century old party, to review the situation with three top heads of the rebel G-23 in presence. An unprecedented act indeed as the party has never been so prompt to hold such meets in the face of either electoral defeats, galore in the recent past, or internal squabbles.
It triggered hope that a quick review would logically be followed by initiation of prompt remedial measures, at least a roadmap towards that direction. As usual the quick convening of the CWC, enthused sections of the news channels more than anyone else, even the G23 rebels, in predicting an on-the-spot post-mortem followed by a shake up.
Given the Congress culture firmly based on status quo syndrome, brushing the problems under the carpet and pass a customary resolution reposing full-faith in the current leadership, it was too much for asking. Quick and timely decision making has never been the Congress forte, an area where it has been beaten fair and square by the new-look BJP. So, the logical conclusion, and not surprisingly, was that the party will have to wait for another day for overhauling and renaissance.
If the reports that an open debate was allowed during the over four-hour long meeting, post-Nehru, are true it is also an unprecedented development. In the normal course this is a phenomena which has become extinct in the annals of political parties and more so the Congress. This might have been planned by the strategists, after quick convening of the CWC meet, to defang the three representatives of the G23 team namely its leader Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rajya Sabha MP, Anand Sharma and AICC general secretary, Mukul Wasnik who incidentally were all known for their closeness to the Gandhi family and are its beneficiaries.
What more the CWC could do at this juncture other than a free-wheeling debate in the absence of the cell phones ( the source of the sources attributed news reports) and laying thrust on meeting the August, 2022 deadline of electing a new party president? More so after Mrs Gandhi pre-empted by declaring that she along with Mr Rahul Gandhi and Mrs Priyanka Gandhi were ready to “make any sacrifice” in the interest of the party, thereby hinting at resignations.
Certainly, this was an opportunity for the G23 leaders to strike or at least raise the heat. Nothing of the sort happened. Instead they joined the chorus rejecting Mrs Gandhi’s offer. In fact, they went a step ahead and stated that they have never questioned her leadership while remaining non-committal on the Gandhi siblings.
One hopes that they will pick up the gauntlet when elections to elect the president are held. A national political party without a full-fledged president for over two years is certainly not a palatable proposal. This situation has been further worsened with Mr Gandhi acting as a de facto chief of the party while persistently refusing to accept the responsibility.
A desirable step that Mrs Gandhi could have taken in the CWC would have been stepping down and appointing a new interim president, no matter even a loyalist, with an advisory committee to oversee the organisational elections. This would have silenced the Gandhi family’s and also the party’s critics within and outside AICC corridors and at the same time lent great semblance of impartialness to the impending electoral process.
It is unthinkable in the currently mired culture of the Congress but which deserved a thought. No bookish solution will help the fast degenerating party for which the time is ticking fast with a fully armed- power, money technology- Modi-Shah combine led-BJP breathing at its neck. Out-of-the-box is the name of the game, packed with surprise elements and quick decision making. From Congress standards quickly convening CWC meeting falls in this category but this spirit did not reflect in its proceedings.
The holding of the CWC without any delay do reflect some sense of urgency on the part of the Gandhi family and their supporters. It is another matter that there was no further reflection of this in the meeting. The party has been faced with existential crisis since long but there seemed either no will or need to show such urgency in the past.
However, one reflection came in the form of Mr Gandhi’s observation that the political rivals, with an obvious reference to BJP, cannot be electorally defeated using age old tools and the need to invent new strategies and tools. This is just a small fraction of the diagnosis which needed to be further delved into provided there is a will.
Question arises, who had been stopping the Congress from rediscovering itself? The answer is two-fold- the inertia that has gripped the leaders in particular with no will to work hard. The top brass took to the easiest way of status quo while many of the leaders adopted the more comfortable approach of looking for greener pasture elsewhere.
The CWC was held in the backdrop of a deadly blow of having lost power in Punjab and chances of winning Uttrakhand and Goa where a favourable atmosphere existed for Congress. Not the blame game but fixing responsibility, who so ever high and might he or she be, be the norm which should have been strongly stressed in the very CWC as beginning of a new chapter.
These seemingly baby steps could have gone a long way in not only lifting morale of the rank and file, but as initiation of creating a new narrative. This is so because Mr Gandhi’s observation had also laid stress on the need to create new and strong narrative particularly on what Congress has to offer if it comes to power.
Waiting for organisational elections in the fond hope that the solution to all ills lies in having a new president, is certainly not going to help. The run up to the elections has to be matched with confidence building and conciliatory measures to shore the Congress’s image of a decided house. The generational change cannot happen at the cost of the party’s existence.
Follow our WhatsApp channel