Rumours of the Congress's revival have been greatly exaggerated. The unambiguous defeat meted out to the Bharatiya Janata Party in this year's Bihar elections made it seem like a rising tide might lift all anti-Narendra Modi boats. Chief among those was supposed to be the shipwreck that has been the principal Opposition party: The Indian National Congress, now led in some part by vice president Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul's coronation as head of the Congress party has been in the works for the better part of a decade now. There were serious, non-ironic demands for him to be made the prime minister before last year's general elections. Yet it is telling that the 45-year-old has yet to officially take over from his 69-year-old mother, Sonia, who remains the Congress president. And even if the schizophrenic path the Congress has taken over the last few days in the National Herald case was because of instructions that came from Sonia's office, that tells us even more about Rahul's inability to steer the ship in a crisis.
And make no bones about it, this was a crisis of the Congress's own making.
Self-inflicted wounds
That is true literally, because the National Herald case – in which Sonia, Rahul and other Congress leaders have been accused of misappropriating party funds for their personal profit – would not have turned up if the party had not used allegedly questionable methods while handling its own money.
But it's also true in the political sense because the case has been bubbling along for some time now. It's likely that the Bharatiya Janata Party would not have brought the Herald case up in a massive way at least until after the Parliament session concluded, so that crucial legislation could be passed with Congress support. Instead, Rahul and Sonia both made bold remarks suggesting the court summons were part of a political vendetta that came directly from Modi's office.
That became the foundation on which the Congress began disrupting Parliament, which had, until then, been reasonably productive this Session, especially in the Lok Sabha. It would be funny if it weren't so depressing. The Congress Members of Parliament forced to protest in the well of the House by their leadership had no idea what they were yelling about, forcing them to resort to broad slogans that can be heard at any agitation anywhere in India: "tanashahi nahi chalegi" (down with dictatorship).
The next day the reason for this became clear. Voices within the Congress had already suggested that it wouldn't be all that smart to hold up important legislation in Parliament to defend judicial – not political – action against Rahul and Sonia. As keen as the Congress leaders might have been to project themselves as victims, the stench of corruption still lingers heavily around the party and the National Herald court summons carried with it another whiff of that foul smell.
Revealing cluelessness
The result was a series of statements so blatant that it's hard to believe anyone still thinks the Congress has well thought-out, ideologically sound opinions on major political issues.
First, any time you have to insist over and over that two things are not connected to each other – as the Congress tried to do with its National Herald protests and the Goods and Services Tax Bill – you're only adding more adhesive to the bonds. The BJP managed to sell the idea that the Congress was holding development hostage with Sonia and Rahul's freedom as ransom, and it stuck.
Next, you can't just pull any old allegations out of a hat and say your protests were about that all along. Suddenly on Friday Ghulam Nabi Azad insisted that the Congress had been protesting against the government's inaction regarding three BJP leaders accused of various things.
Curious. The Congress hadn't been protesting against this inaction at the start of the Parliament session, yet suddenly after the National Herald court summons it somehow decided to remember that it had washed out the Monsoon session demanding the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The question to ask here is whether the Congress was being blatantly opportunistic in the Monsoon session or whether that aspect was more apparent after the National Herald summons. (The answer is, naturally, both).
Finally, what is the point of a narrative without an endgame? Rahul and Sonia might really want to portray Modi as authoritarian, but they ought to be well aware that the government – even if it wanted to – could do very little to overturn a court summons. Disruption might have been the gameplan, as it was in the infamous 2010 session when the BJP picked up the 2G case or even earlier this year, but in both cases there were clear demands for resignations.
This time around, the Congress essentially peeled back the curtain to admit: We want to hold up Parliament and portray Narendra Modi as evil in the process. The Congress may still be able to prevent the GST being passed but it looks more and more likely that it will lose any Bihar-based goodwill in the process.
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Rahul's coronation as head of the Congress party has been in the works for the better part of a decade now. There were serious, non-ironic demands for him to be made the prime minister before last year's general elections. Yet it is telling that the 45-year-old has yet to officially take over from his 69-year-old mother, Sonia, who remains the Congress president. And even if the schizophrenic path the Congress has taken over the last few days in the National Herald case was because of instructions that came from Sonia's office, that tells us even more about Rahul's inability to steer the ship in a crisis.
And make no bones about it, this was a crisis of the Congress's own making.
Self-inflicted wounds
That is true literally, because the National Herald case – in which Sonia, Rahul and other Congress leaders have been accused of misappropriating party funds for their personal profit – would not have turned up if the party had not used allegedly questionable methods while handling its own money.
But it's also true in the political sense because the case has been bubbling along for some time now. It's likely that the Bharatiya Janata Party would not have brought the Herald case up in a massive way at least until after the Parliament session concluded, so that crucial legislation could be passed with Congress support. Instead, Rahul and Sonia both made bold remarks suggesting the court summons were part of a political vendetta that came directly from Modi's office.
That became the foundation on which the Congress began disrupting Parliament, which had, until then, been reasonably productive this Session, especially in the Lok Sabha. It would be funny if it weren't so depressing. The Congress Members of Parliament forced to protest in the well of the House by their leadership had no idea what they were yelling about, forcing them to resort to broad slogans that can be heard at any agitation anywhere in India: "tanashahi nahi chalegi" (down with dictatorship).
The next day the reason for this became clear. Voices within the Congress had already suggested that it wouldn't be all that smart to hold up important legislation in Parliament to defend judicial – not political – action against Rahul and Sonia. As keen as the Congress leaders might have been to project themselves as victims, the stench of corruption still lingers heavily around the party and the National Herald court summons carried with it another whiff of that foul smell.
Revealing cluelessness
The result was a series of statements so blatant that it's hard to believe anyone still thinks the Congress has well thought-out, ideologically sound opinions on major political issues.
First, any time you have to insist over and over that two things are not connected to each other – as the Congress tried to do with its National Herald protests and the Goods and Services Tax Bill – you're only adding more adhesive to the bonds. The BJP managed to sell the idea that the Congress was holding development hostage with Sonia and Rahul's freedom as ransom, and it stuck.
Next, you can't just pull any old allegations out of a hat and say your protests were about that all along. Suddenly on Friday Ghulam Nabi Azad insisted that the Congress had been protesting against the government's inaction regarding three BJP leaders accused of various things.
Curious. The Congress hadn't been protesting against this inaction at the start of the Parliament session, yet suddenly after the National Herald court summons it somehow decided to remember that it had washed out the Monsoon session demanding the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The question to ask here is whether the Congress was being blatantly opportunistic in the Monsoon session or whether that aspect was more apparent after the National Herald summons. (The answer is, naturally, both).
Finally, what is the point of a narrative without an endgame? Rahul and Sonia might really want to portray Modi as authoritarian, but they ought to be well aware that the government – even if it wanted to – could do very little to overturn a court summons. Disruption might have been the gameplan, as it was in the infamous 2010 session when the BJP picked up the 2G case or even earlier this year, but in both cases there were clear demands for resignations.
This time around, the Congress essentially peeled back the curtain to admit: We want to hold up Parliament and portray Narendra Modi as evil in the process. The Congress may still be able to prevent the GST being passed but it looks more and more likely that it will lose any Bihar-based goodwill in the process.
