Anil Anand
After lot of hesitancy and a long run of indecisiveness the recalcitrant Congress finally changed presidents in three states- two of which are to face assembly election early next year. The most significant thing about initiation of much awaited process of change both at the AICC and states levels is that younger candidates have found favour with the party high command.
Is this the beginning of a generational shift in the Congress? There are no easy answers to this question coming from an organisation that is clogged by not only the old-guard but also total indecisiveness at all levels. It was after a long hiatus that the high command could take a courageous decision to put an end to the stalemate in Punjab by appointing cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Siddhu as the state unit chief while managing to take on board the old but aging warhorse, chief minister, Captain Amrinder Singh.
The most important thing about breaking this logjam was that the party high ups seem to be making up their mind to start calling the shots. Will the truce between the Captain and Siddhu last? Will the high profile former opening batsman be able to deliver? These are important questions but much more important is that the high command has shown some spine to clear the uncertainty without being overawed by the 79 year old chief minister.
In the face of these developments, particularly appointing three PCC chiefs, the oft-repeated question once again comes to mind. Is it the moment for another Kamraj plan to usher the Congress into a new era of generational shift? The answer is yes but not necessarily in the copy book form of the original plan conceived by the then Tamil Nadu chief minister, K Kamraj and meant to re-vitalize the Congress. He had proposed, circa 1963, that all senior Congress leaders should resign from their respective posts particularly the ministerial ones and devote their full energy and potential to galvanise the organisational set-up.
The idea behind the over half century old Kamraj plan is more valid today than ever before notwithstanding the fact the Congress is not a pale shadow of what it was in the 1960s. This is another matter that Mr Kamraj, who later became Congress president, thought of the idea to shake the party out of inertia after three successive electoral defeats and took it as an alarm bell.
Accordingly, the Congress of today also needs to be shaken and woken up from the slumber of indecisiveness and crass opportunism. The appointment of three younger PCC presidents is under the circumstances a silver-lining and the process needs to be carried forward.
The Congress of today doesn’t have the luxury of so many ministers and chief ministers to be dislodged and draft them for party work. Currently the challenge is different as all those, barring a few chief ministers, want a bigger piece of the pie in the organisational set up without either leaving an inch for the younger set of leaders, or offering to become some kind of mentors to strengthen the party. Their claim to fame is the long ministerial and chief ministerial stints or the AICC general secretary posts they held for decades together without an iota of accountability.
A redrafted Kamraj plan, may be with a changed nomenclature is certainly the need of the hour. There are some marked similarities in the circumstances of 1963 and 2021 from the Congress perspective.
Rewinding to 1963 the Congress at that point was in power for over 15 years at the Centre with its top leadership led by the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ageing. At the same time the party had faced electoral debacle in three Lok Sabha bi-polls at the hands of Opposition stalwarts Acharya Kripalani, Mr Rammanohar Lohia and Mr Minoo Masani. Naturally, the alarm bells had started ringing and Mr Kamraj heard and made the right noises.
As against three bi-polls defeats that set the Congress leadership of the time thinking, the Congress has faced series of such debacles led by two crushing defeats in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and losing state after state. But no alarm bells ever rang. Instead of that the factional fights at all levels became bitter or even the tried and trusted Congresspersons started abandoning the ship for greener pastures.
Whether the Kamraj plan actually revitalised the Congress organisationally is debatable. But it certainly gave a jolt and forced the party big-wigs to shed complacency. It was a no less task that six union ministers including Lal Bahadur Shastri, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Morarji Desai and an equal number of chief ministers, including Orissa CM, Biju Patnaik, S K Patil of Karnataka and Kamraj, Tamil Nadu CM, had to resign from their posts.
Whatever be its name, form or draft, a new look Kamraj like plan is the need of the Congress currently. But before that happens the party must first resolve the impasse on who would be the next president. It is a reiteration to state that Mr Rahul Gandhi has already assumed the role of a de facto president and that neither Mr Gandhi nor his party has any option but to make him president again.
After all, more than the Congress it is Mr Gandhi who has persistently been under-attack from the all powerful machinery of the ruling BJP for the past seven years ever since Narendra Modi government came to power. Mr Gandhi has been targeted as part of the much thought of plan as Mr Modi had himself recently said that nothing happens in the current ruling dispensation without planning. The idea behind targeting Mr Gandhi could be two fold- target and demoralise him lest he becomes a challenger to Mr Modi and secondly hitting him hard would mean a weakened Gandhi family and in turn decimation of the Congress.
Since Congress does not have a government at the Centre and in large number of states, the Kamraj plan-II mostly needs to deal with old guard and how best to use their experience not necessarily by giving the cushy party-posts. However, there are problem areas as seen in Punjab, since resolved, and Rajasthan where tussle of one-up-manship between veteran chief minister, Ashok Gehlot and promising young face Sachin Pilot is continuing.
It is amusing that while the Congress has all but forgotten the Kamraj plan, BJP the party which swears by perennial anti-Congressim seems to have embraced the idea. The first signs of this adoption were visible in the setting up of a “Marg Dasrshak Mandal” by Mr Modi when he came to power at the Centre. The ilks of L K Advani, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha were sent packing to this advisor body which is still to hold its first meeting in the last over six years of its existence.
The recent expansion and reshuffle of the Union cabinet also had some design borrowed from the Kamraj plan. A welcome attempt has been made to give the Cabinet a fresh and new look with inclusion of some young faces and some old faces were either despatched to Raj Bhawans or simply dropped. It is not entirely a take on the Kamraj plan but has some similarities to that. The things would be much clearer as the BJP’s organisational reshuffle also takes place.
Should the Congress draw a lesson from BJP about the relevance of a Kamraj plan in 2021?
Follow our WhatsApp channel
