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Friday, March 29, 2024

The Denial Mode of Congress Leadership and INC is Losing Its Cadre

IndiaThe Denial Mode of Congress Leadership and INC is Losing Its Cadre

Rajdeep Sardesai said, “BJP knows how to win elections but can’t govern, Congress knows how to govern, but not win elections.”

The recent move of Jitin Prasada, a once-close aide to Rahul Gandhi, to join the BJP was traitorous, to say the least.  The ideology of the two parties differs drastically, and this roots in the question, “How can Congress leaders speedily join BJP with such a different ideology.”  Yes, opportunism is the key reason but it also reveals a weak foundational understanding of Congress.

Congress party’s history traces back to freedom fighters fought on the infallible grounds of unity with people of different ideological backgrounds but they had one common purpose, to throw out the British colonial rule. The mass Indian fight for freedom enveloped various sections of society. This movement also experienced a process of constant ideological evolution!

The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ram Chandra Vidyabagish, Debendranath Tagore, Keshub Chunder Sen, Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Bhupendranath are some of the names of the revolutionary leaders in Bengal.  This movement later took root in the newly formed Indian National Congress.

The period of World War II saw the peak of campaigns by the Quit India Movement led by Congress and the Indian National Army movement led by Subhash Chandra Bose with the help of Japan.  Nationalists like Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Bagha Jatin, Surya Sen preached armed revolution to achieve self-rule.

Poets and writers such as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Subramania Bharati, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and Kazi Nazrul Islam used literature, poetry, and speech as a tool for political awareness. Feminists like Sarojini Naidu promoted the emancipation of Indian women and their participation in national politics.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar one of the architects of the Indian Constitution championed the cause of the disadvantaged sections of Indian society within the more significant self-rule movement. Although the underlying ideology of the campaign was anti-colonial, it was supported by a vision of independent capitalist economic development coupled with a secular, democratic, republican, and civil-libertarian political structure.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, an Indian lawyer rose up in the Congress and led the freedom movement successfully, and was known as Mahatma Gandhi.  He was later assassinated by Nathuram Godse, from the RSS, the head of the BJP.

After the 1930s, the movement took on a strong socialist orientation. The work of these various movements ultimately led to the Indian Independence Act 1947, which ended the suzerainty in India, and the creation of Pakistan. India remained a Dominion of the Crown until 26 January 1950, when the Constitution of India came into force, establishing the Republic of India.

Congress has ruled India for approximately 60 years and raised the nation from the scraps left over by the British Raj to a nuclear-powered nation, facilitating the green revolution, white revolution, built the Army to be the fourth largest in the world, industrialized and technologized India where Indian engineers excel in the world, built and equipped pharmaceutical giants, and eventually, India became the vaccine center of the world, through Congress welfare schemes eradicated poverty and did much more.

In Congress, in 2004, Rahul Gandhi former president of the party emerged to create a powerful youth leading force that has brought new life into the Congress.  However, with this new surge of youth, things are a bit shaky because the members have still not understood their origins, and the boat rocks whenever an older leader leaves, and worse still to join BJP!

The Congress supporters keep blaming the traitors for leaving due to opportunism but the reasons are far deeper and more complicated.  While they are definitely leaving for the grass greener on the other side, there are other reasons why the party is still on rocky grounds.

Ideology

Today, democracy and secularity are at the edges of being totally wiped away not by colonialism but by a dictatorial rule with the BJP’s Hindu Rashtra ideology which will make all other Indians of other religions second-class citizens and the Hindus too, according to caste will be discriminated such as Dalits.  Today we see clashes erupting between Brahmins and Thakurs, so a Hindu Rashtra will decimate India to fragments on grounds of religion, caste, and socio-economic factors.

The Congress is fighting is a totalitarian dictatorial regime, to re-establish secularism.  In this fierce battle, it is very strange when top Congress leaders suddenly jump ship to join the BJP repressive regime with such ease.  Could that have happened when India was fighting colonialism?  Did we see Gandhi ji jumping boat to join the British because they offered him more opportunities and money, position, and power?

No, we never saw this in the old Congress but we see this over and over again now.  Most Congress leaders today have not understood the power of ideology in shaping a nation. While new youth are rising up like warriors to fight oppression, the looseness of some older party leaders is manifest when they join BJP.  It reflects that they do not care that BJP is an authoritarian party nor care if India is handed over to a tyrannical rule to lose democracy.  This is why they can easily jump over, and a powerful former Congress leader such as Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia could readily join with BJP without a second thought.

While Congress keeps talking about “hidden Sanghis” in Congress, it would help if they could educate their own members in the richness of ideology and drum it in.  Minds can be taught to think differently.

Of course, if people have secret ambitions, they will change party according to conveniences and opportunities.  The truth is if people are not clear about ideology, they should not join Congress in the first place.  Also, such might have joined when Congress was flourishing but now Congress is down, these leaders are leaving, and obviously do not care about the principles nor aims of the party.

Organization: 

While Sonia Gandhi is the party president, she is still an interim president, elections were to be held in June and are still hanging.  Perhaps there is a reason for this, but the importance of defining the party president gives the person the full powers to form his own members and designate their responsibilities and portfolios.

Assam, which was expected to be won by Congress was lost, perhaps due to the inability to “negotiate” or reach out to certain factions.  Kerala where Congress did incredible work could have been won had loose knots.  And now in Punjab, with elections only a few months away, there is dissent and rebellion.

States like Goa, Meghalaya, Puducherry where Congress had a majority were lost to the BJP, and critics say it is due to bad planning and the inability of the party to hold on to their own states. While it is said that the BJP bought those MPs, the infrastructure of the Congress if strong will disable such bargainings.

Congress wastes precious time by not working fast among the dissatisfied.  It has the policy to let them go, but the policy should be to win all, to transform minds. This is politics, but also the philosophy of life.

There have been 9 leaders who left Congress who are now chief ministers in other states.  This means there are people with powerful potentials who have never been lifted up to a level of leadership.

Once again, it is easy to say, “Good they have gone, they were useless for the party,” but circumstances can change anyone to anything.  It is said that people change for two main reasons, either their minds have been opened or their hearts have been broken. If people with leading potentials are left on the shelf, they will eventually move on because the power within them is so strong, it will rust within if it is not used.  People with influential abilities need to be promoted, it is paramount to building a political party.

Is it fear of powerful personalities that make a party keep them down? If such fear is ruling a party, it is ruining itself. Fear is the mother of all disasters and the path to self-destruction.  Every leader with great potential should be build up, voices heard such as  Sachin Pilot, and others. It is very frustrating for them if their requests are not heard and even worse when Congress supporters swiftly start to berate them when they are dissatisfied.

Leaders should be identified and promoted from the core to the peripheries. Every single party worker should be recognized, promoted, and given responsibilities.

When 23 senior Congress leaders stood up, wrote to Sonia Gandhi calling for sweeping changes, stressing on the “uncertainty” of the leadership and the “drift” in the party had demoralized workers and weakened the party, the leadership has to pay heed to such requests. On the contrary, masses of Twitter handle started berating them as traitors.  Calling for change is the realization that there is something wrong, and is not rebellious. It is solely concern that makes people ask for change.  If they did not care, they would have left quietly.

Ground Warriors:

There are crores of party workers on the ground with BJP working in each state because it obviously has the money, but money can be raised if it is needed and should not be an obstruction.  In Congress, perhaps just a crore or so, and with a thin group of workers, with poor infrastructure, with their simple needs not addressed because there is no one around, they struggle.  In one instance, one of the workers requested literature to share with people, and it appeared that the leader brushed aside his request, perhaps the leader too was ill-equipped.

It is the work on groud that is the most powerful. Srinivas Bhadravathi Venkata from Karnataka and currently the National President of the Indian Youth Congress had done a marvelous work of creating a team around him and working on the ground with outreaches and a lot of voluntary work during the COVID crises and even before this, during the farmers’ protests and anti-CAA protests and dozens of other events.

In other parts of India, the Youth Congress has reached out to locals during natural disasters and other times of trouble, however, the number of workers needs to be increased and during elections, one rarely sees the leaders on the ground, except in some states.  A party sends out a powerful message when their presence is felt during elections, it shows they care, and even if they feel they may never win, the reverse may be true, one never knows the secret votes they would get, just showing people they were present.

Denial

Denial is dangerous.  It is pretending something is okay when it is not and is giving time for the enemy to gain territory.  When Congress is losing its cadre, it should aim to reorganize, reinvent, and re-vote in leaders, and also work on the ground more than on  Twitter.  However, this can be excused because India is in the storm of a raging pandemic, but still, leaders have to connect more with workers, which is only seen in a few leaders.

Whenever one leader joins BJP, it does hurt Congress, because of the vast chasm between thinking, goals, and ideology, and so it does ease the shock to say a “Sanghi” has joined BJP, but the truth is ideology was not carved into party members hearts, the only force to keep the party alive and growing.

Once again, reiterating during the freedom movement, not a single Congress leader jumped ship to join another party, it was unthinkable because, in those days, ethos, integrity, honor, and character were king.

When a Congress leader, who comes under the banner of Mahatma Gandhi can join BJP, who worships the late Nathuram Godse, from the RSS who assassinated Gandhi and on Gandhi’s birthday and death anniversary they still abuse Gandhi from their BJP/RSS handles, it is very disturbing.  This exposes the Congress leader as absolutely having no conscience reflecting a kind of a dead soul.

The answer for Congress now is revival, and people have to work to bring a revival to Congress, only a revival can save it and it probably comes from the Youth Congress and the people of India, such as ordinary citizens because they now have ideals, ideology, ethos, and understand the power of secularism against dictatorship and control, perhaps the older do not care anymore about this.

In order to have a revival, the first step is to remove denial!  Today, the party has to rise above itself and think of the nation and work with others to make it happen.

In order to have a revival, the first step is to remove denial!

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author.

 

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