The 130-year-old Congress is gradually unraveling.
Faced with the prospect of a bleak future and a serious leadership crisis, an increasing number of Congress members have been deserting the party following its electoral rout over the past year. Many more are waiting in the wings, shopping around for other options while Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi look on helplessly.
Former Union minister, party spokesperson and a self-proclaimed Gandhi family loyalist Jayanthi Natarajan was the latest to quit the Congress on Friday after a three-decade-old association with the party.
Before announcing her resignation from the party, Natarajan wrote a lengthy letter to Sonia Gandhi in which she sought answers about the reasons for her removal as environment minister over a year ago and underlined that her decision to block environmental clearances to projects was taken at the behest of Rahul Gandhi.
Damaging revelation
Natarajan was careful not to attack the Gandhi family directly in her letter or at her press conference on Friday but she said enough to suggest that she was taking instructions from the party leadership and not Manmohan Singh, who was prime minister at the time.
Admittedly Natarajan is not a heavyweight (she does not have a political base in her home state Tamil Nadu), but her letter and her press conference has damaged the party leadership immensely as this is the first time that Rahul Gandhi has been directly blamed for influencing the United Progressive Alliance government’s policy decisions, a charge made repeatedly by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Predictably, the BJP was quick to extract political mileage from the embarrassing blow dealt to the Congress. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley lost no time in declaring to the media that rumours about the functioning of the UPA government had now been confirmed.
Initially shell-shocked at the turn of events, the Congress quickly went into damage control mode. Putting up a brave front, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi dubbed Natarajan’s complaint as an “image bachao abhiyan” and suggested that their political opponents with corporate interests had pressured Natarajan to speak out against the Congress and the Gandhis. He also hinted that Natarajan was removed from the environment ministry after corruption charges surfaced against her.
But Singhvi’s spirited attack against Natarajan and defence of the Gandhi family was, at best, a short-term measure, to provide immediate cover to the beleaguered party. It was the equivalent of giving Band-aid treatment to a terminally-ill patient.
The Congress is actually in urgent need of a long-term strategy to rebrand the party, infuse it with fresh ideas, strengthen its organisational base, lift the sagging morale of its workers and provide a strong leadership.
Roadmap is essential
If Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are unable to set out a definite future roadmap for the party’s revival, desertions from the Congress will continue, the infighting in its state units will intensify and party leaders will not stop taking potshots at each other.
High-profile departures
For instance, Jayanthi Natarajan’s departure has been preceded by a number of high-profile resignations from the Congress.
Former Union minister and long-time Congress loyalist Krishna Tirath joined the BJP a few days ago after she was denied a ticket in the upcoming Delhi assembly polls. Another former minister, GK Vasan, from Tamil Nadu left the Congress some months ago, while Rao Inderjeet Singh and Birender Singh crossed over to the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls and are now ministers in the National Democratic Alliance government.
More recently, former Punjab MP Jagmeet Brar and his supporters switched loyalties to the saffron camp. In addition to the leaders, there has been a large-scale exodus of cadres from the Congress. Once a strong force in the united state of Andhra Pradesh, the Congress has been reduced to a marginal force Telangana and Andhra where its workers have defected en masse to the Telugu Desam Party, the Telangana Rashtrya Samithi and the YSR Congress.
In Tamil Nadu, former finance minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram is on the warpath. The party’s Punjab unit is in the throes of an intense factional battle with former chief minister Amarinder Singh raising a banner of revolt to press for the replacement of state president Pratap Singh Bajwa. In fact, the party is rife with speculation that Amarinder Singh may leave the party if his demand is not accepted. The situation is no better in other states.
While the party is having a tough time keeping its flock together in some states, it faces an uphill task in others where it has been reduced to a bit player. The Congress has virtually no presence in key states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and has been unseated by a rampaging BJP in Haryana and Maharashtra. A similar fate now awaits the Congress in the coming Delhi assembly polls where the party is not even considered a factor.
Frightening scenario
“We are looking at a frightening scenario,” remarked a glum-faced Congress office bearer. “We are losing workers and regional leaders, our support base has eroded and our vote share has come down drastically.”
Clearly, at a time when the Congress should be sitting down to draw up a game plan to take on a resurgent BJP, its leaders are busy attacking each other. The party witnessed an ugly spat only recently which reflected the ongoing tussle between the party’s old guard and its GenNext, also viewed as Rahul Gandhi loyalists.
When senior party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi described Narendra Modi’s victory as a “victory of Bharatiyata or Indian-ness”, Congress media chief Ajay Maken publicly rebutted him and went as far as to say that this matter had been referred to the party’s disciplinary committee. Although the controversy has blown over, it did draw attention to the simmering tensions in the Congress. Dwivedi is known to be close to Sonia Gandhi while Maken is identified with Rahul Gandhi.
This is not the first time that the strain between the two groups has surfaced and this could only get worse in the coming days if the Congress leadership does not step in to stem the rot. More importantly, it has become imperative for Sonia Gandhi to take responsibility because Rahul Gandhi does not inspire confidence among the party cadres.
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Faced with the prospect of a bleak future and a serious leadership crisis, an increasing number of Congress members have been deserting the party following its electoral rout over the past year. Many more are waiting in the wings, shopping around for other options while Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi look on helplessly.
Former Union minister, party spokesperson and a self-proclaimed Gandhi family loyalist Jayanthi Natarajan was the latest to quit the Congress on Friday after a three-decade-old association with the party.
Before announcing her resignation from the party, Natarajan wrote a lengthy letter to Sonia Gandhi in which she sought answers about the reasons for her removal as environment minister over a year ago and underlined that her decision to block environmental clearances to projects was taken at the behest of Rahul Gandhi.
Damaging revelation
Natarajan was careful not to attack the Gandhi family directly in her letter or at her press conference on Friday but she said enough to suggest that she was taking instructions from the party leadership and not Manmohan Singh, who was prime minister at the time.
Admittedly Natarajan is not a heavyweight (she does not have a political base in her home state Tamil Nadu), but her letter and her press conference has damaged the party leadership immensely as this is the first time that Rahul Gandhi has been directly blamed for influencing the United Progressive Alliance government’s policy decisions, a charge made repeatedly by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Predictably, the BJP was quick to extract political mileage from the embarrassing blow dealt to the Congress. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley lost no time in declaring to the media that rumours about the functioning of the UPA government had now been confirmed.
Initially shell-shocked at the turn of events, the Congress quickly went into damage control mode. Putting up a brave front, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi dubbed Natarajan’s complaint as an “image bachao abhiyan” and suggested that their political opponents with corporate interests had pressured Natarajan to speak out against the Congress and the Gandhis. He also hinted that Natarajan was removed from the environment ministry after corruption charges surfaced against her.
But Singhvi’s spirited attack against Natarajan and defence of the Gandhi family was, at best, a short-term measure, to provide immediate cover to the beleaguered party. It was the equivalent of giving Band-aid treatment to a terminally-ill patient.
The Congress is actually in urgent need of a long-term strategy to rebrand the party, infuse it with fresh ideas, strengthen its organisational base, lift the sagging morale of its workers and provide a strong leadership.
Roadmap is essential
If Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are unable to set out a definite future roadmap for the party’s revival, desertions from the Congress will continue, the infighting in its state units will intensify and party leaders will not stop taking potshots at each other.
High-profile departures
For instance, Jayanthi Natarajan’s departure has been preceded by a number of high-profile resignations from the Congress.
Former Union minister and long-time Congress loyalist Krishna Tirath joined the BJP a few days ago after she was denied a ticket in the upcoming Delhi assembly polls. Another former minister, GK Vasan, from Tamil Nadu left the Congress some months ago, while Rao Inderjeet Singh and Birender Singh crossed over to the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls and are now ministers in the National Democratic Alliance government.
More recently, former Punjab MP Jagmeet Brar and his supporters switched loyalties to the saffron camp. In addition to the leaders, there has been a large-scale exodus of cadres from the Congress. Once a strong force in the united state of Andhra Pradesh, the Congress has been reduced to a marginal force Telangana and Andhra where its workers have defected en masse to the Telugu Desam Party, the Telangana Rashtrya Samithi and the YSR Congress.
In Tamil Nadu, former finance minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram is on the warpath. The party’s Punjab unit is in the throes of an intense factional battle with former chief minister Amarinder Singh raising a banner of revolt to press for the replacement of state president Pratap Singh Bajwa. In fact, the party is rife with speculation that Amarinder Singh may leave the party if his demand is not accepted. The situation is no better in other states.
While the party is having a tough time keeping its flock together in some states, it faces an uphill task in others where it has been reduced to a bit player. The Congress has virtually no presence in key states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and has been unseated by a rampaging BJP in Haryana and Maharashtra. A similar fate now awaits the Congress in the coming Delhi assembly polls where the party is not even considered a factor.
Frightening scenario
“We are looking at a frightening scenario,” remarked a glum-faced Congress office bearer. “We are losing workers and regional leaders, our support base has eroded and our vote share has come down drastically.”
Clearly, at a time when the Congress should be sitting down to draw up a game plan to take on a resurgent BJP, its leaders are busy attacking each other. The party witnessed an ugly spat only recently which reflected the ongoing tussle between the party’s old guard and its GenNext, also viewed as Rahul Gandhi loyalists.
When senior party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi described Narendra Modi’s victory as a “victory of Bharatiyata or Indian-ness”, Congress media chief Ajay Maken publicly rebutted him and went as far as to say that this matter had been referred to the party’s disciplinary committee. Although the controversy has blown over, it did draw attention to the simmering tensions in the Congress. Dwivedi is known to be close to Sonia Gandhi while Maken is identified with Rahul Gandhi.
This is not the first time that the strain between the two groups has surfaced and this could only get worse in the coming days if the Congress leadership does not step in to stem the rot. More importantly, it has become imperative for Sonia Gandhi to take responsibility because Rahul Gandhi does not inspire confidence among the party cadres.