Finding new purpose

The Indian National Congress has failed in its electoral performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Yet, it has not lost its relevance with people and their politics. The politics of the Indian National Congress need not necessarily be only electoral politics. It can go beyond it with 'people's politics' which essentially implies taking the issues of people and mobilising them to build a movement. This was in vogue since Independence up to the 1980s. After 1991, there has been no such pan-India political struggle organised by political parties surrounding the issues of people. There were movements of the people but they were micro. As a result, political parties have isolated themselves from political struggles and yet, conducted political events lasting for a few hours. The concept of struggle has disappeared from the minds of party cadres. Since Independence, electoral politics took precedence and people's politics was pushed to the background. Making the government work for the people, for whom the Indian National Congress (Congress) has fought relentlessly in the past, is not so difficult if it chooses a new strategic path. Simply because of its numbered presence in Parliament, it need not feel that the space for its fight has vanished. It has to shift its fight from a Parliament premise to premises derived from people. It requires only a new vision, strategy and approach. The party has to contextualise itself to suit the requirements.

Over a period of time, Congress has been captured by self-seeking middlemen who influence many vital decisions and have acted as barriers in connecting the leader to her/his cadres. During the era of globalisation, Congress did a splendid job in achieving growth and evolving pro-poor programmes and schemes. Yet, the party had to face the heat of corruption and, as a result, lost its image. It is true that the Congress has set a track record of performance in the government and its name has been damaged primarily because of the corruption charges levelled against many of its ministers. In the course of years, the leadership failed to weed out corrupt persons or at least push them to the background to bring forth leaders who have a clean image with cadre connections. Further, the party has failed to take the narrative from corruption charges to major achievements in governance and development, especially for the poor.

It is to be noted here that no other president of the Congress in the past has faced problems as Rahul Gandhi has. Rahul has done his best in connecting himself with the cadre but unfortunately, the old and corrupt second-line senior leaders have failed miserably in procuring the best out of the hard work rendered by the Gandhi scion. Rahul has faced all the consequences of the commissions and omissions of the party in the past. Now, it is the reality that Rahul Gandhi has to face to take it to the centre-stage as an inevitable force to serve the people of India. His resignation can be a strategy, not a solution.

At this juncture, Rahul Gandhi has to see the new opportunity. This opportunity stands in the form of a challenge. It is his responsibility to change the challenge into an opportunity. First, he has to establish grassroots connections for the party. There is no shortcut, it has to be done through the politics of struggle. When the party is geared for political struggle on issues surrounding people, committed cadres will voluntarily participate and plunge into action. It should be on the issues of the people and it should be made as people's struggle with an evolved strategy. In this process, automatically, the middlemen, managers and brokers who have acted as leaders will disappear as they are hardly willing to be a part of any struggle. For this course of political action, strong regional leaders who have a clean image and established grassroots connections, have to be identified and appointed. For the past four to five decades, Congress has failed to nurture regional leaders and, as a result, regional parties have grown by pushing the grand old party to irrelevance. As a result, regional leaders of the Congress became subservient to regional political parties for electoral gains. This has to be reversed. In the next five years, it has to chalk out a programme for the party and the activities of the party should begin from the streets by taking up people's issues instead of fighting for the Parliament only.

In this process, a large number of new faces have to be brought into party activities, replacing the cronies. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are the assets from the perspective of the party cadres, but they are liabilities from the perspective of BJP. The party must now take the advantage of context and shift the politics from 'electoral politics' to 'people's politics' by taking up the cause of the people through political struggles. Only then will the Indian National Congress regain its original roots and chalk out a new course of political action. Sonia Gandhi can devote her time for parliamentary politics and Rahul and Priyanka can plunge into people's politics and thereby, they can emerge as leaders of the masses rather than leaders of the party organisation. But, will they do it?

(The author is a former Professor and Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies, Gandhigram Rural Institute. The views expressed are strictly personal)