It’s time Congress recaptures spirit of 1920s

There was a time when the Congress could self-correct, when leaders could respond to the popular mood. By the middle of the 1920s, the party had been transformed from an elite to a mass party. The leadership had managed to gauge public opinion and change strategies. The party might have become irrelevant, had not Gandhi introduced it to new forms of politics. In 1929, prompted by Nehru and other younger leaders, the Congress adopted the resolution on Purna Swaraj.

In a flux: The Congress should realise that it may become irrelevant due to personalised power struggles. Tribune photo

Neera Chandhoke

Political scientist

Elections to five important Assemblies — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur — are due in early 2022, yet the main Opposition party, the Congress, continues to be in a state of atrophy. There was a time when the party could self-correct, when leaders could respond to the popular mood. Consider the period 1912-1929. In his An Autobiography, Jawaharlal Nehru scathingly dismissed the 1912 party session in Bankipore as “very much an English-knowing upper class affair where morning coats and well-pressed trousers were greatly in evidence. Essentially, it was a social gathering with no political excitement or tension.” By the middle of the 1920s, the party had been transformed from an elite to a mass party. The leadership had managed to gauge public opinion and change strategies.

The change was initiated in 1919: a crucial year for the freedom struggle. The draconian Rowlatt Act and the senseless firing on peaceful protesters at Jallianwala Bagh propelled public anger. Congress strategies of petitioning the colonial government fell into disrepute. The party might have become irrelevant, had not Gandhi introduced it to new forms of politics.

His proposal that the party lead a non-cooperation movement against the colonial government rocked the 1920 session. A number of leaders had supported the 1919 reforms introduced by the government. Now, Gandhi proposed a boycott of legislative assemblies, schools, universities and government jobs. Motilal Nehru supported the initiative, other leaders disagreed. Gandhi’s proposal was accepted because the rank and file of the party supported him. Soon enough, leaders discovered that they were wrong, and that people were enthusiastic about the movement. The Congress

leadership bowed to popular opinion. This was one incident among many that demonstrated the ability of the party to appreciate public feelings. In 1929, prompted by Jawaharlal Nehru and other younger leaders, the Congress adopted the resolution on Purna Swaraj. The Congress became a mass party, a far cry from the party that had been captured by the elites.

The Congress took over power in independent India, and increasingly lost the ability to grasp what people wanted. By the early 1970s, it had become a durbar. Proximity to the leader became infinitely more important than proximity to the people. The distance that has grown between the once grand old party, and the people, has cost the Congress dear. The decline of the party has also cost the people of India. We have been taken over by a well-oiled and a well-funded electoral machine. We are dominated by the cynical agenda of the ruling party. There is little space to breathe. In the India of today, dissent is sedition, young people are jailed for drawing a cartoon, for authoring a poem, for speaking out, and for disagreeing with discriminatory laws. But leaders of a party, that once led India to independence, are silent. This is the ultimate tragedy of

our democracy. We do not care

that this person or that person leaves the party. What we care about is the increasingly dismal state of our democracy.

Why is a competitive party system essential for democracy? One, in a liberal democracy, people have the right to choose between different political agendas. We exercise choice whether we buy books or designer items. Why should we not have choices in politics? Politics will decide how we live. Our freedom to live the way we want to is connected to the choices we exercise in politics. Two, a competitive party system plays an important role in the formation of public opinion on what has been done, and what needs to be done. Only then can we arrive at a considered judgment on the policy that is best for our country. We can hardly have knowledge of, or deliberate on policy, if only one agenda is thrust down our throats. Three, for every party that dishonours the Constitution and constitutional commitments, we need two parties that can defend the fundamental law of the land. In the history of the post-colonial world, one-party rule has signified the demise of democracy.

In the 1980s, scholars began to speak of a ‘crisis of representation’ and suggest that hierarchical and bureaucratic parties were incapable of representing interests. The alternative was civil society. By the opening decades of the twenty-first century, right-wing populists heading undemocratic parties cracked down on civil society. And we realised that civil society organisations cannot be a substitute for political parties, they have to work with the latter. Conversely, a democratic government can remain in touch with public sentiments only through political parties that work along with, say human rights organisations. A necessary proviso is of course that the party institutionalises internal democracy. Parties whose members are in thrall to the leader can hardly democratise society.

It is time that the Congress recaptures the spirit of the 1920s. It is time it learns that elites become irrelevant if they spend their time in personalised power struggles. It is time that it begins to understand and appreciate our anxieties about next year’s elections and subsequent ones. The grand old party owes the country. Once its leaders deliberated on democracy and gave us the Constitution. It is time our democracy and our Constitution is reclaimed by the party and once again handed over to us. It is time for a second freedom struggle, centred around a second azadi.