When a public figure dies it is customary to use the phrase, “end of an era”. The truth is, in most cases, the era had ended long before their demise. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee era had ended in 2004, L.K. Advani’s career had ended in 2009, the Tarun Gogoi era in Assam was over when he lost in 2016.
If there is one person to whom the cliché applies in whole measure it is Ahmed Patel. When he tested positive for Covid-19 in October and checked into Metro Hospital in Faridabad, he was the man “running” the Congress party. His demise is truly “untimely”, to use another cliché, because he was still in the thick of things, micro-managing the affairs of a rudderless party unable to decide its direction.
Over the years, his designation had changed from political secretary to Congress president to treasurer of All India Congress Committee. No designation could ever describe what Ahmed Patel was. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was the party. This is what various Congress leaders mean in their condolence messages when they say he is “irreplaceable”.
For that reason, his demise is the most politically consequential event of 2020. When the main person running an establishment suddenly dies, there is bound to be some chaos. In managing the chaos, a whole new system emerges. The new people taking over will have their own way of doing things, will develop their own systems and their own managers. For better or worse, it will be a new Congress party.
Ahmed Patel was the flag bearer of status quo. After him, status quo is not viable.
Also read: A 1980s cricket match that gives peek into how Ahmed Patel tackled party, politics & politicians
‘Old AP’
The ‘old guard versus new guard’ battle within the Congress made sure the party wasn’t able to find its feet since at least 2014, if not earlier. Today Ahmed Patel is being described as a “bridge” between the old and the new guard, which is true. Yet, on many days, this battle seemed to be about the control of the party affairs between Rahul Gandhi and Ahmed Patel.
When Rahul Gandhi took over as party president in the December of 2017, he had to induct Ahmed Patel as party treasurer. Patel’s powers had diminished, but he couldn’t be dispensed with, not only because he was Sonia Gandhi’s closest political confidant but also because he knew how things were done in the Congress — how leaders, workers, elections, media, donors, friends, enemies and fellow travellers were to be ‘managed’. Even to create a new system you needed the old hand to tell you how things were done.
With Rahul Gandhi as Congress President and Ahmed Patel as treasurer, the situation in the Congress was privately described in party circles as “new CP, old AP”. With AP’s passing away, we should soon see a “new CP, new AP” system. The Sonia era is over. It is now that the Rahul era can actually begin, or Rahul-Priyanka era if you will. The tussle to be the “new AP” is on; Randeep Surjewala is said to be the front-runner.
Also read: Ahmed Patel, ‘most important’ man in Congress after Sonia and Rahul, irreplaceable for party
When the backroom outshines the front room
As a backroom manager, Ahmed Patel was more powerful than any other. He succeeded in this role because he had no ambition other than being Sonia Gandhi’s eyes and ears, voice and command. When Madhavsinh Solanki was replaced as Gujarat chief minister in July 1985, Ahmed Patel was already the go-to man for Rajiv Gandhi on Gujarat affairs. At this point, someone in Ahmed Patel’s position would have been frontrunner for the CM’s post, except it was politically unviable to have a Muslim as chief minister.
Similarly, when Sonia Gandhi decided not to become prime minister in 2004, most people in her situation would make the closest political aide the PM. But AP was not even in the running. It seems to be a matter of political consensus that a Muslim can’t be CM or PM. India has never had a Muslim prime minister, and the last time a Muslim became chief minister of a state other than Jammu & Kashmir was in the 1980s (Assam and Maharashtra).
Not that AP ever showed any such ambition. He didn’t seek to be anything more than Sonia’s man, a position in which he was arguably more powerful than any he could have held. Union ministers and chief ministers would have to seek his time, guidance and approval. If it was his weakness that he couldn’t be CM or PM, he made it his strength. Other than Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel, there has perhaps been no one who has enjoyed such power without holding executive office.
With no personal ambition beyond what he had, remaining just another Rajya Sabha member, Ahmed Patel could be trusted by all. This trust meant that if a Congress leader spoke to Ahmed Patel, s/he felt the word would reach Sonia Gandhi. And if Ahmed Patel said something, it would be seen as Sonia Gandhi’s word.
It wasn’t Ahmed Patel’s fault that the backroom was better than the front room. The Gandhi family’s ability to win votes in their own name waned over the years, making his managerial abilities all the more crucial in fighting the daily battles of politics, putting out fires and then lighting some.
Yet, it must be said that the Congress party’s over-reliance on AP’s micro-managing resulted in over-centralisation. In every state, there were two kinds of Congress leaders: the ones who were considered close to Ahmed Patel, and the ones who weren’t. This was the standard Congress way of managing local leaders, making sure no one was able to become big enough to challenge the authority of the “High Command”, a euphemism for Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel. You could be critical of this culture, but in maintaining it he was only being — to use another term being used a lot for him today — “loyal” to his boss.
Ring in the new
The managerial regime of Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel did a good job of managing things for a while: balancing relations between party and government, old guard and new guard, party and coalition leaders, and so on. It worked well enough to bring the Congress to power at the Centre for ten years, except that the limitations of this managerial system started showing in 2011.
The flip side of the centrality of the managerial approach was that the Congress under them played a defensive game, unable to ‘revive’ the party in places such as Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, unable to win a single election in Patel’s home state, Gujarat. This boiled down to the inability of the Congress management to create and sustain new mass leadership.
A more critical assessment of the Ahmed Patel era can wait, since it is considered inappropriate to be critical of anyone who’s just passed away. Nevertheless, Team Rahul will likely have both the merits and the pitfalls of the Ahmed Patel way on top of their minds as they proceed to establish a new system of running the party.
Rahul and his own team of managers now have to sink or swim. They no longer have AP to blame. When they take on this onerous responsibility, they will do well to remember that Ahmed Patel was the main crisis manager who helped Sonia Gandhi sail when she took over the party when it seemed to be collapsing in 1998.
The author is contributing editor at ThePrint. Views are personal.
Now more or less all castes and religions have their own parties. Hence no scope for Rahul Priyanka era to begin.
Rahul and priyanka era cannot begin. Their career is dead. We need new leaders in Congress.
Father like figure for MANY CONGRESS SUPPORTERS.
Please accept my heart felt condolences.
AP embodied the true “centrist” spirit of the Sonia congress. The congress under them had a problem – both Sonia or AP could not hold the highest office due to peculiar reasons of Indian politics prevailing then and now. So they needed proxies to project and manage their power. And of course the drawbacks of that showed as time passed. We are also witness to the drawbacks of Modi-Shah running roughshod on democratic institutions of India – so every system has its pluses and minuses.
On one point Shivam Vij is bang on – it is swim or sink time for RG. Either he fully stamps his authority on the Congress (if need be completely sidelines the old guard) and gets it ready for the rough and tumble of politics or he steps aside. The demise of AP is an indicator that the middle-ground in Indian politics no longer exists.
Maybe for you, most of Indians don’t really care
King is no more. Long live the King ! Darbari is no more. Long live Darbari ! But who ? Shivam vij has every qualification to fill the coveted post. Why not induct some talent in talent-starved party ?
One word for this joker is Chaatu
AP represented a typical Congress culture. A wheeler and dealer, a typical cloak and dagger approach that now represents the Congress culture. Staying in power, banking on societal “devide and rule”, fear mongering in minorities, and rampant swindling of state assets is what Congress practiced with perfection. Politicians of whatever stature bowed to these “Satraps” – who weilded power through the ears and eyes of the Family. Unless Congress mends its approach, plays a positive role as the main Opposition party- they have no future. If i can read thr Gandhi family personality – the new Satrap would be a similar Fixer without a mass base, so as, not to threaten the family position.
One Word for The Article “BULLSHIT”
The entire PRINT team under the captainship of Shekhar Gupta will fill the gap. Shivam will help Shekhar in formulating the startegies.
LOL, Sonia did not “decide” not to become the PM in 2004. She was barred by the Constitution from holding that position. You are sick in your mind man! Your chamchagiri towards AP seems deeper that that of AP towards Sonia – you belong together. One more thing, Sonia has been the most vicious and anti-national leader of India since 1947 who took the country to the precipice of destruction. AP was there aiding her in every step of the way. That is the epitaph that deserves to be written on AP’s grave.
“It is now that the Rahul era can actually begin, or Rahul-Priyanka era if you will.”
Just like the Rahul era has been beginning for the last ten years. When will this beginning end?
Really is he the guys who run the congress ship ashore? This is the most important political event? His power came from sycophancy.
Might someone remind this writer, that L K Advani, while being outside any political limelight, is still well and alive, the last anyone reported.
Strange that Shivam Vij mentions him in the same vein as a AB Vajpayee , Tarun Gogoi and the recently deceased Ahmed Patel.
Shivam Vij should should nominate himself to run for the post of Congress treasurer.
If the Rahul team is sinking – like a stone / brick – AP is hardly the person to blame. It is not that he represented back room intrigue, they are mass leaders. For that matter, what does R S Surjewala bring to the table that this great man from Bharuch did not. As AP told someone about Rahul, You cannot do surgery on Nature. You have to work with what you have. He also shared with Vir Sanghvi his disappointment over how poorly Dr Singh was functioning in the last phase.
Yes…. now the Rahul & Priyanka “era” can truly begin.