Rahul’s Committee for 2019

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay

FOR five months since the Congress Working Committee (CWC) was dissolved on February 16 and converted into a Steering Committee in March, it had often come to mean ‘Congress Without Committee’. The coinage was a snide shot at Rahul Gandhi’s decision to allow the Congress to remain without its highest decision-making body for an unprecedented length of time.

After Tuesday’s reconstitution of the CWC, the moot point is whether this would be a ‘working’ committee or be yet another non-working troupe. Would it be in any way more participative than the ones prior to it? Will the CWC ever begin the process of regaining the exalted position it had prior to 1967 after which the party metamorphosed into one unitary block characterised by a supreme leader taking all vital decisions? But most importantly, what role will the CWC play in steering the party which has shed the pronounced diffidence affecting it following the 2014 rout?

 It is ironical that almost every political party continued on the downslide and became less and less democratic while the Indian polity became more democratic and socially inclusive and the rising electoral turnout and comfort of people with political coalitions exhibited signs of it maturing as a democracy. The BJP remained the only party with a collective leadership. Since 2014, however, even this redeeming feature of the BJP has been obliterated. Consequently, when its leader points accusative fingers at other parties for being personal fiefdoms, the exercise appears hollow.

 In the past eight months since he became party president, Rahul Gandhi has talked of the need to reform the party, provide greater access to ordinary workers and common people, end the circle of eliticism in the party and in the process become a more embracing and democratic party. It will soon be evident, in the manner in which the CWC goes about its task and if it is transparent about its processes, whether the Congress president is sincere about accomplishing any of these tasks. In his interactions, Gandhi has exhibited circumspection and humility but he has to work at eliminating arrogance existing in large sections of the leadership.

 Not just the CWC, but whenever any large political party reconstitutes a core team of functionaries, the news is as much as in those who have been inducted, as those who were excluded. It was no different for Tuesday’s exercise and copious newsprint, Internet space and telecast time has been consumed deliberating on individual cases.

 Without getting into specific names, as this would possibly end up as micro-analysis which is based more on subjective assessment, it is necessary to see the bigger picture. It is necessary to assess if this exercise, undeniably Rahul Gandhi’s biggest rejigging of the party apparatus after becoming president, provides clues to his medium- and long-term strategies. It is necessary to view this reconstitution from two separate prisms: while the medium-term tactics must necessarily be aimed at the next general election, the long-term approach should look at a longer time span, given that the Congress president has more time on his hands than PM Modi for whom, winning the next election is imperative for his party to remain politically ascendant.

Succession in any organisation is always an awkward period as existing equations are disturbed, long suppressed insecurities resurface and aspirants once again raise their heads. There is also the challenge of temperamental adjustment during transitions, especially when the baton is picked up after a powerful leader at the helm. Post Independence, despite his commitment to inner-party democracy, Jawaharlal Nehru aimed to be the first among equals and was accepted in the role, especially after Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s demise. Because the Shastri years were too short and dominated by external issues, intra-party cohesion was a necessity. By the time Indira Gandhi assumed the leadership after a bitter contest with Morarji Desai, the ageing party veterans thought that in Nehru’s absence, real power, they had been denied by Nehru, would now vest with them and were willing to get into a contest for this.

Although it was Ram Manohar Lohia who affixed the goongi gudiya (dumb doll) lapel on Indira Gandhi, he effectively gave voice to the sentiments of the old-guard. However, in a short period she stamped her personality and cast away the syndicate into heaps of irrelevance. In time, Indira Gandhi worked only with loyalists and sycophants. Rajiv Gandhi too shook off the stranglehold of the pre-existing party with his famous crusade against “brokers of power and influence, who dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy.” Yet, he ended up inculcating an alternative culture of cronyism within the party. When Sonia Gandhi assumed charge, there was much from what she needed insulation. For this, a buffer-zone was created consisting of hand-picked loyalists she found, some by herself and others bequeathed by legacy.

 In contrast, Rahul Gandhi has not been hastened into his job, having served the longest time as party president-in-waiting, whatever the reasons, ranging from personal ambivalence, fear of revolt to even his mother’s unwillingness to devolve power. In the months since becoming Congress president, he has shown intent of blooding a new generation of leaders in the party but simultaneously demonstrated the assurance of a temperamentally secure leader. He has not hid his intentions to ease out veterans but recognised continued abilities of several. Not perfect like most leaders, non-inclusion of leaders like Amarinder Singh on the pretext of leaving out sitting chief ministers reflects his frosty ties with them and inability to find a way around mutual awkwardness. The reconstitution of CWC has the stamp of a leader who is beginning to slowly assert himself while not making a complete break with past.

 But more important than rejig of party apparatus, Gandhi’s capacity to deal with a hostile adversary and not getting committed to playing on Modi’s terrain will be tested in the run-up to the 2019 polls. Rahul Gandhi would not mind being singled out for lavish slander he is currently being heaped — this creates a niche for himself within Opposition ranks which other parties would not have earmarked for the Congress president. But, the biggest challenge is to remain faithful to the Congress’ core values of egalitarianism, secularism and social inclusion without falling into the trap of the BJP’s efforts to polarise voters on communal lines.

Senior political analyst