This appeared in CNBC TV18 on the 14th of August

The last few years have seen a tussle within the Indian National Congress on the way the party should move ahead. On one side was the (relatively) young guard led by Rahul Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot amongst others – who looked at the party being built ground up. With local units being more empowered. On the other side were the old guard – people who had consistently lost elections but for some inexplicable reason still calling the shots in the INC – people like Digvijay Singh, Ahmad Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad – who believe in a more centralised high command. Last week the old guard won. Instead of reposing their trust in someone younger, and more able to drive the party and unite it, the party called on Sonia Gandhi to take on the mantle until the time a new leader could be found.

In the aftermath of the general elections rout and the resignation of Rahul Gandhi, the INC has been in disarray. It has seen its numbers dwindle, as young politicians with ambition seek greener pastures – and there is, right now, no pasture greener than joining the BJP.  Priyanka Gandhi’s name popped up a few times, before Priyanka made it very clear that she wasn’t in contention.  Scindia and Pilot both seemed in the running, but just as they lost out the Chief Ministership to the old guard in the states that they won through meticulous planning – Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan – the duo’s chances seem nixed by the political back roomers. The names of Mukul Vasnik – who last won an election in 2009 – and Malikarjun Kharge the last leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party was floated around. Finally, the mantle fell to an ailing Sonia Gandhi to hold the party together as interim president, while the search continues for a President.

In his resignation letter, while taking accountability for the drubbing in the polls Rahul Gandhi wrote, “Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019. It would be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as president of the party,” While he has gone, others responsible for the debacle have not. Those include people responsible for ticket allocation.  And, those are the same people manoeuvring and manipulating to ensure that the Congress stays in opposition. Nothing exemplifies the chasm more than the divided voices within the INC on the abrogation of Article 370.

The INC is at the crossroads. It can go back to business as usual. But, it needs to realise that the rules of that business has changed completely by Mr Modi. While Narendra Modi is backed up by the powerful organisational outreach of the RSS, it is his personal charisma that draws voters. What the RSS does is deliver the voter to the booth. But, Mr Modi attracts them first. The Congress, in its hunt to fix the top leadership has forgotten that a party runs on its grass roots members.  And, the ability of these members to get people to the election booth on the day, to vote for the party. It is this grass roots that is decimated, and unless there is a clear vision to rebuild the party ground up, the Congress is going to face more defections, and more losses.

The backroom brigade of the Indian National Congress has wrecked more harm on the party, that the BJP and the RSS could ever do. They have made sure that an organisation’s greatest resources – people – have had to move to other parties, to meet their aspirations. Defeat after defeat, in the states and at the centre, has not told them that their policy is wrong. That they are harping on the same issues that the electorate has roundly rejected. 

To be in contention for the next elections, the Congress has to take some radical steps. The starting point is party wide primaries for all positions, starting at the booth level, and ending at the presidency. And to achieve that you need the kind of organisational energy that the old guard cannot bring. Sonia Gandhi served her party well, in the 90’s. but this is not the 1990’s,, the world has changed. It is up to the Congress  to understand the nature of the change