When you put the onus of your effort on someone/something useless, a system collapses. I believe that a political party in India shall soon cease to exist, if it does not learn to pass on its baton to someone more deserving. Are you telling me that India’s oldest political party can’t harvest multiple leaders, more modest speakers and a commendable captain to sail the ship? If they fail, their ship will sink.
In 2009, when the BJP faced a huge collapse – the iconic idea of NDA had dissolved. When the party at the government was procrastinating on their extended honeymoon, the framework of the BJP shifted. Sushma Swaraj started to became more proactive in the parliament and party proceedings.
But then BJP struck gold, as allegations of corruption were hurting the UPA. While that was happening, the BJP had the Gujarat model to present. The infamous interview of Rahul Gandhi with Arnab Goswami can never be forgotten and probably helped the BJP’s agenda. This further led to the rise of Narendra Modi, in whom people started to see hope.
He became India’s superman in 2013-2014, with Amit Shah as his right hand. And with Rajnath, Arun Jaitley, Naidu, and Swaraj by his side, Modi became more than a face – he became a force in himself. I believe he did what Indira Gandhi did in 79′ and totally decimated the Congress in the 2014 elections.
Now what should the Congress learn from this?
1) The BJP was smart and courageous enough to remove their prime leaders like LK Advani and co, for the sake of the party.
2) If you have young people to work with, prepare them to become forerunners in politics and not just bystanders.
3) Learn to realise the demands of the people, and supply that with ethos.
The most important thing that neither the Congress nor the BJP realises, is that the ministers and MPs are purely public representatives and must work to serve the people. For instance, Arvind Kejriwal saying, “Dilli ke maalik hum hain (We own Delhi)” in the Delhi Assembly is collectively wrong. Nobody owns Delhi except the people.
So, the Congress must revamp its structure. They must bring in better leaders. They must get in leaders who dare to possess a backbone to fight – like a ‘fight till I die’ attitude. It is difficult. Modi had a team of experienced politicians to support him. I believe that Rahul does not have that. I think Rahul needs to gather his own team of Avengers to fight this Justice League, or else box office mein unka show nahi chalega.