G-523 leaders of Congress are in a huddle pointing toward a roadmap for reforms to revive, rescue and rejuvenate the party. After the crunching electoral dribbling and debacle in the recently concluded five state assembly elections, the huddle came.
Interestingly, all these developments come after the Congress Working Committee’s meeting, where Ms Sonia Gandhi was asked to lead the ranks and cadres until the appointment of a full time working president, further making the party jittery about its prospects and possibilities. As for their overreliance and dependence on Gandhis.
Hesitancy by Gandhis is postponing all efforts by its leaders to make it a sound and credible alternative to the electorate, with regional outfits like TMC and AAP extracting mileage benefitting BJP’s primary political rival of Congress. The Gandhis should take a wiser call or depute someone loyal and obedient at the helm of affairs as the party can’t afford to be in such a shape.
Especially when it’s a battery of leaders doubting and suspecting if they can stage a bounce back. Even though nothing is permanent in politics, Congress is in no mood to repent its losses at the ballot, refusing to learn a lesson from its misjudgments leading to its political fall.
Apart from committees and councils from bottom to top, block to district assigning tasks to different sets of leaders would signal a shift in the narrative of the performative politics pillared on appeal, charisma and consensus to a one where power is equitably held and distributed rather than monopolised in the hands of a few.
Are we expecting much from those hiding beneath the feuds and friction illustrated in how stalwarts like Ashok Gehlot and Kapil Sibal, from time to time, have endorsed and expressed their opinions and thoughts either by being on the side of Gandhis or taking a contrarily divergent view?
Though these aren’t going to be quite competitive, they can give a fair sense of the party’s command on taking everyone on board smartly and compassionately, dwelling and delivering for the grand old party committed to its ideals, principles, and objectives.