Congress’ moment of reckoning

The Congress Party is in the throes of its worst internal moment in a long time. There has been no split. Such an open breaking away is usually caused by ideological and political cleavages which are often emphasised by personality differences at the top.

Of late, what the Congress is seeing instead is a slow drifting away by prominent individuals and of sections of its legislature parties in states, in at least one of which — Arunachal Pradesh — a sizeable section left and converted their own government into a BJP government. Something similar nearly came to pass in Uttarakhand as well.

Though in both these states the BJP played a nefarious role by seeking to misuse constitutional functionaries like the governor, what simultaneously stood out was the absence of meaningful communication between the Congress Party’s central leadership and its units in the states.

A crisis engendered by such a factor is quite different from an election defeat. It immediately shows up an important facet of the current movers and shakers of the Congress.

While Congress president Sonia Gandhi earned accolades for bringing the party to power at the head of the UPA for 10 long years, her leadership and that of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was conspicuous for its lack of communication with the people.

No matter what was going on in the country, or around them, all that the top guns of the Congress could summon was silence. This left the people befuddled and the Congress was ejected from office by a rampaging BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi although UPA had delivered a seven per cent average rate of growth over a 10-year period, a record in the democratic world.

The problem at the top leadership level seems worse than suspected. It is not just the electorate that the Congress has failed to communicate with, it is its own rank and file and its state leaders. Stories abound of important leaders made to wait for days together and not being able to meet Sonia or Rahul Gandhi. This is bad news if even only half of what is rumoured is true.

On the heels of the shock in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand (and a near awkward situation arising in Meghalaya), half a dozen Congress MLAs in Tripura have joined the Trinamul Congress. Top leader Ajit Jogi has left the party in Chhattisgarh, and that may well be good riddance. But Gurudas Kamat leaving the Congress in Mumbai is bad advertisement for the party.

Analytically, each of these setbacks may have specific causes. But taken together, it is evident that the national leadership has failed to communicate and to inspire. Accountability is in order. Mere tinkering won’t do. Saving the brand is more important than saving individuals.