Congress: Inconsequential Even without the Gandhis
Asia News Agency
The BJP is a recent phenomenon, born in 1980. The Congress, on the contrary, writes Shikha Mukerjee (writes exclusive stories on politics ) “is part of the national imagination as a movement and an inclusive platform that primarily led and sustained the struggle through sacrifice and ideas for an independent republic. It doesn’t belong to either the Nehru-Gandhi trio……nor does it belong to the Group of 23, led by, among others, Ghulam Nabi Azad, a tiny elite of mostly failed ‘leaders’ who cannot win elections on their own and can’t add heft to election fights in the states.”
Consequently, “the resuscitation plans devised by the G-23 are as inept as the leaders who have been debating intermittently on the subject for two years. The rush of meetings last week, before and after the staged, inconclusive Congress Working Committee meeting, with all invitee members included, was a deception. It ended with Ghulam Nabi Azad trotting off to meet Sonia Gandhi with a proposal for collective and representative leadership, which adds up to absolutely nothing, since it was a petition rather than an initiative backed up with a plan and a timeline.”
The Congress, led by people who have long exceeded their utility, argues Mukerjee “is no match for the BJP. The Congress as a captive of the Gandhi trio is not a match for the non-Congress, anti-BJP Opposition regional and smaller parties. Its claim to be a ‘national party’ is a mythology that bolsters its inflated estimation of its political significance and sees the BJP as the only alternative. This is politically convenient for Mr Modi’s party and its hegemonist dreams of establishing a Hindu majoritarian nation……..
“The BJP’s need for the Congress as a failed ‘national party’ led by the inept Rahul Gandhi, propped up by his family, is to make Mr Modi look like the saviour of the nation, protecting it from imminent chaos. In personality-driven politics, Rahul Gandhi is the perfect foil for Mr Modi…..”
Test during Presidential elections
The presidential elections due later this year, emphasis Mukerjee “will confirm exactly how much or how little control the BJP has in terms of legislative strength. The indirect elections will confirm that the BJP has 1,516 state legislators and the Opposition parties have 2,623 legislators, out of a total of 4,139 state legislators who will vote. It will also confirm the BJP’s numbers declined in the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand elections. It may confirm that parties like the Biju Janata Dal or Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which voted with the BJP in 2017 to elect Ram Nath Kovind, have changed their mind subsequently.
“The election will also inform the Congress, perhaps even convincingly, that despite its inflated opinion about itself and in the BJP’s calculated narrative, that it is a political lightweight. It is not the alternative that can miraculously revive, not even if the Gandhis are stripped of control….”
Sonia Gandhi - both goddess and nemesis of Congress: But the Gandhis will never let go. At the recent Congress Working Committee meet, Sonia Gandhi said “we three” (the Gandhis) are ready to “step back”, an immediate chorus rose: There was no question of the Gandhis resigning, says Sagarika Ghose (has been a journalist for over three decades). The Congress has been pulverised in the recent elections, “but the party has vociferously rejected any accountability for Gandhi siblings. At the centre of this fatally ‘defeat proof’ mindset is the enigmatic figure of Sonia Gandhi. Invested with the aura of ‘sacrifice’, she is both goddess and nemesis of Congress.”
