Plunged into trust deficit
For a party born out of a movement drawing support of masses, Congress’s contemporary outreach has been abysmal, to say the least
Our political experts argue that the Indian National Congress is in a fix and moving along a beaten track in pursuit of a panacea to the organisational problems which will not help the party to come back to the centre stage as an alternative to the ruling dispensation. They lament that the party is facing unprecedented problems in different fronts which require a major surgery and not cosmetic solutions to cure the ills.
Congress faces severe problems in organisational restructuring, ideological repositioning, leadership and above all, trust deficit. These problems are not unique to Congress. Many of the regional political parties have been facing the same problems. Many second-level leaders in Congress and other regional parties have noticed this syndrome and started moving towards BJP to enjoy greener pastures. BJP has strategically used them to advance their political march towards the power centre.
BJP understands it well that organisational strength, contextualised ideological position of the party, adoption of the most advanced technology to reach out to masses, projecting powerful leadership to communicate and convince masses, creation of a new consciousness among the people and eroding the stand of opposition parties by touching their weaknesses are factors to achieve what it envisages. BJP, in recent years, has demonstrated that it was never contended with the electoral victory. Its aim is to penetrate into masses by using success. When BJP achieves electoral victory in a state, it will consolidate its positions first and then only will it move towards the next phase or area. Conquest and consolidation is its strategy while Congress has not learnt the art and as a result, despite being in power for ten years, it could not consolidate and strengthen the party substantially. They have been continuously searching for strategies and strategists for electoral victory and not for penetrating into masses. In fact, Congress is the mother of political parties in India, just as the British parliament. It was born out of a movement drawing the support of masses, more particularly the rustic folk in the rural areas namely the farming, pastoral, craft, fishing and tribal communities. They were drawn towards the party emotionally as the leaders built trust through their moral conscience and engaged with people.
Over a period of time, Congress concentrated more on the electoral processes, government formation and its management rather than public engagement. In the last 30 years, the party has absolutely moved away from its original constituents, concentrating more on electoral strategies and processes, and thereby facing a trust deficit. In the era of globalisation, the party has lost its trust as benefits of the economy reached the rich, the middlemen and managers of the party despite its pro-poor policies and programmes. Congress never bothered to see whether the chalked out schemes and programmes have reached the needy by involving the party cadres. At this juncture, BJP moved into space left by Congress and capitalised. It is not only the space left by Congress that has been used but also the values such as patriotism, nationalism, sacrifice, service, yoga, naturopathy, etc.
Congress has to start its introspection by searching for its soul. A proper introspection will show where Congress failed. This exercise has to be done not with managers and middlemen of the party but with Congress-minded intellectuals and opinion-makers. They are critical of Congress as it moved away from its original constituents. They have concerns for the poor and they feel that Congress has lost support from its core constituents.
Congress need not bother about the immediate electoral outcome but rather work for rejuvenating the party and build its organisational strength by contextualising the ideology. Mahatma Gandhi's ideals can substantially guide the party if the party leadership analyses the fall of the party in the backdrop of the Gandhian ideology and framework of building a mass movement. It has full five years and hence it can reposition itself by taking up the cause of the poor and by which a new consciousness can be created that it is a neo-Congress.
(The author is a former Professor and Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies, Gandhigram Rural Institute. The views expressed are strictly personal)
