The Indian National Congress, our very own grand old party, the oldest one in the world, since its formation has served different purposes. The current one being participation in the electoral democracy of India. In the period succeeding our independence, Congress witnessed hardening of Nehru’s grip over the party, which by the era of Indira Gandhi was seen as even more consolidated within the hands of the Nehru-Gandhi family. More so because of Sanjay Gandhi’s authoritarian handling of the party affairs.
A Long Reign
Since Independence, Congress has had 13 non-Gandhi presidents in comparison to 5 presidents from the family. The latter served longer than the former and unquestionable loyalty to the family was valued more than to the party. The family had become the party. This was cemented by the overnight coronation of Rajiv Gandhi as the Prime Minister after Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
The General Elections of 1984 gave Congress an overwhelming majority that no other party has got till date. Successive events like these ingrained the fact that the family was going to be the nucleus of the party and an adhesive that was going to keep various regional, lingual and ideological factions within the party together.
The Binding Agent
Gandhi family’s role as the glue that keeps the party together was strikingly visible in the crisis of 1990s. Under the presidency of PV Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesari, the party got dwindling results in the general elections of 1996 and 1998. Several regional “satraps” discontent with the directionless functioning of the party started leaving, forming their splinter groups and fighting their elections.
In such a time, Congress leaders approached Sonia Gandhi, who had previously refused and stayed away from politics, to take over the reins of the party. She faced an uphill task and many challenges, the prime one being her foreign origin. However, slowly and steadily after recovering from the shock of the 1999 general election, Congress won as many as 15 state assembly elections.
The general elections of 2004 and 2009 saw victory for Congress-led coalitions at the centre and in many states. Majority of the breakaway parties merged back with the INC. This turn of fortune was a direct result of Sonia Gandhi’s leadership and the family’s power of glueing factions together.
Fall Of The Infallible
The year 2014 was when this joyride came to an end. The Congress faced a formidable BJP, better prepared than last time and led by Narendra Modi, a stronger and more desirable alternative for the Indian electorate. The BJP revolutionised methods of election campaigning and took social media by the storm. Their steamroller approach was directed towards demolishing the Gandhi family’s name and the trust people held for them, thereby successfully crippling the Congress’ biggest vote garnering strength.
The way Narendra Modi was portrayed as a “chai-wala” against Rahul Gandhi as a “shehzada” worked out brilliantly for the BJP and, hence, it delivered a single party full majority government for the first time since 1984. On the other hand, it delivered a death blow to the Congress-led coalition and eroded the supremacy of the Gandhi family. The party still decided to follow Rahul Gandhi’s leadership in the next stage of its existence.
Despite winning some major state elections, the Congress hasn’t yet successfully tackled the BJPs election machinery nationally. This trend has followed up to the present times with another crushing defeat in 2019. The BJP has been successfully making gains in areas of the north-east and south-India that once used to be bastions of the INC. They have replaced Congress as the principal opponent against regional parties in many states.
The Ostrich Problem
Like his father, Rahul Gandhi also realised that the party has to move beyond the family. His resignation as the president in 2019 shook the leaders of Congress Working Committee a.k.a. the “High Command”. Members of the CWC have been loyal courtiers of the family for the past many decades. Most of them are senile, MPs of the Rajya Sabha and would lose if they’d contest for the Lok Sabha. They firmly control the party from within but refuse to accept the reality, burying their heads like an ostrich.
Instead of cultivating and harvesting a new crop of leaders at PCC and DCC levels, the Working Committee is busy in urging the Gandhi scion to retake the lead. This is because they are all scared of the splitting effect a non-Gandhi leadership might have for the party. Another fact they are openly aware of but are unwilling to accept is the rapid corrosion of their vote base. The pride of voting for the Congress is now a thing of the past.
The Gandhi family that was once an asset is now a liability for the party. Only a Congress-led alliance will be able to defeat and replace the BJP at the centre. In order to reignite itself as a beacon of centrist politics, the party must move beyond their delusion of grandeur and stop retreating to the past as a safe haven, only to realise that their perfect world is far removed from present times.