It was Mahatma Gandhi’s suggestion that the Congress be disbanded after attainment of Indian independence. This was perhaps because he realised that the party that led the independence movement was the umbrella under which many ideological streams had come together for a common cause. Now that the objective had been achieved, it would be difficult for all to stay on board. He was right, as many leaders of stature disassociated themselves from the party over a period of time for a number of reasons, but mostly because their politics did not agree with the Fabian Socialism that inspired Pandit Nehru and his development vision.
By the time it was Indira Gandhi’s turn to lead, the leadership base became even narrower with the conservative faction of the party breaking away as the INC (O) under the leadership of K Kamraj, Morarji Desai and others. What remained was the Congress left-wing under Indira Gandhi. It had the committed support of the Brahmins, Sikhs, Muslims and Scheduled Castes till the time of the Emergency. Excesses committed by official agencies led, first, to alienation of the Muslims. This was followed by the troubles in Punjab and the anti-Sikh riots after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
Rajiv Gandhi came to power on the back of a massive mandate brought about by the emotional response to his mother’s assassination. The Congress turned into an ‘organisation’ and not an ideological entity. In many ways, Rajiv Gandhi adopted a more liberal economic approach and inducted his friends, who had no political background, into the inner circle. One of these was Mani Shankar Aiyar.
There was, once again, a huge victory for the Congress after Rajiv’s assassination. As such, the inner coterie retained power through influence with the ‘family’, but did little to shape the party ideology. Liberalisation under Manmohan Singh opened the doors to someone who could do it even better – Narendra Modi.
All this while, there was no ideological rejuvenation of any kind within the party. What Aiyar now describes as ‘Rajivism’ is his construct of what happened through this period. He feels ‘Rahulism’ is not the answer to the party’s needs. While Aiyar is not exactly among the finest political minds of the country, he is saying much the same as many other Congress leaders are asserting in the present – it is not possible for Rahul Gandhi to invent a catch-all ideology that will rejuvenate the party. It may take a long time, but it will have to rebuild itself again from the grassroots, by learning from the mistakes of the past. It still retains the support base to do so.
