Congress Needs New Narratives
Prevailing high-command culture may put a spanner in Congress’ quest for revival of fortune.
- Prevailing high-command culture may put a spanner in
Congress’ quest for revival of fortune. Although the party has promised to make
changes in the organisation, starting from the grassroot level in the recently
concluded Amhedabad session, the fact remains that more than the changes in the
block level leaderships, the party will have to take concrete measures to
prevent para-dropping of leaders from the top and also have to stop appointing
rootless leaders in important positions, which have become synonymous with the
Congress culture for years, to achieve the feat. Gone are those days, when the
party used to be flooded with leaders having strong grassroot connections; in
today’s Congress, proximity with the top leadership seems to be the only
criterion to become leaders of the century-old party. This practice is rampant
within the Congress for more than five decades since the late Indira Gandhi
gained total control over the party by marginalising senior and respected
leaders like K Kamaraj, Morarji Desai, S Nijlingappa, Atulya Ghosh, Biju
Pattanaik, etc. Mrs. Gandhi and her followers had termed it as the end of
syndicate raj in the Congress, but in all practicality the act had virtually
eroded the support base of the party. It was the beginning of the party’s
downfall which started in the late sixties and continues till today. Unless the
slide is arrested, the revival of the Congress party will remain a distant
dream.
- As a matter of fact, during the last decades the Congress
has conceded a lot of grounds to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and others in
absence of ground level connections. While its opponents have made big gains
from the failures of the Congress leadership to maintain the bond with the
marginal and downtrodden sections of the society, excessive centralism has
virtually turned the party into a mere head heavy organisation. Such a
development has also paralysed the functioning of its frontal organisations
like the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), National Students’ Union of India (NSUI),
Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), etc., considered to be important
supply lines of the party. As a result, the party’s support base has gone
totally bankrupt, making the party unable to take on its political opponents
single handedly. This is why, these days the Congress has become an easy prey
in direct contests against BJP and other regional parties at the hustings.
- Thus, to regain the lost grounds the party will not only
have to make organisational changes, but will also have to usher in inner-party
democracy in true letter and spirit. The party must realise that its agenda of
unity, secularism and inclusive growth etc. has already been hijacked by other
political parties. It is time now to set new narratives to get back the support
of the people as programmes like direct transfer of subsidy or waiver of farm
loan will not cut much ice these days as all other political parties too are
offering the same to the people. So, rejecting the old rhetoric, the Congress
should come out with new ideas to attract the populace, especially the youths
towards it.
