The AICC meeting of the Congress party held in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad was projected as a ‘turnaround’ moment when it would be ideologically and functionally rejuvenated. It was timed to ‘energise’ the party cadre before the Gujarat assembly elections due in 2027. The party has been out of power in the state for thirty years and needs desperately to make a comeback in what is PM Narendra Modi’s original stronghold.
Instead, what was dished out was old wine in just as old bottles. From the time when he tore up an ordinance issued during Manmohan Singh’s term as PM, to the present, Rahul Gandhi has blamed the organisation and its cadre for not doing their job properly, blaming ‘traitors’ within the party for the continuing failure. Displaying considerable ignorance of the local political equations in the state, he reiterated the ‘one size fits all’ formula of a caste census solution.
Members of the party should, perhaps, ask themselves what factors are consistently leading to electoral setbacks, even in traditional strongholds. The one common factor would be the focus on one family and its fortunes, rather than acknowledging the existence of other probably more talented leaders in the party. Also, the party has the original high command culture that has completely buried the possibility of a combined leadership, which could even see a non-Gandhi becoming the prime ministerial candidate. This is why the party has seen the migration to the BJP of leaders with considerable ground support – Himanta Biswa Sarma and Jyotiraditya Scindia are prominent in that category.
The present leadership’s pursuit of entirely caste-centric representation in all aspects of life – from the political, economic to the social – ignores the inescapable reality of the evolutionary principle of merit. Presently targeted at distribution of government jobs and political representation, it is bound to extend to the private sector. This will surely scare and demoralise the entrepreneurial class – be it established industry or startups. Even the short-term political advantages of this approach will be lost with sub-castes jostling for power. This is already being witnessed in Congress-ruled Karnataka. India has already been through such turmoil in the past and the consequences have not proved suitable to the nation’s well-being. At this crucial stage of development when the nation is competing for the top spots globally, can it afford to repeat the same mistakes? Does the Congress wish to do to India what the TMC has done to West Bengal?
