Seven things Rahul Gandhi can do for Congress’ revival but he won’t

INDIA coalition breaking up is good for Congress, it must stop looking for survival by tying up with regional parties. They ate into the Congress vote bank to become what they have.

Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra has been criticised by political analysts for its timing, route, theme and more. | ANI

There are many things about Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra that political analysts are finding fault with—timing, route, theme. How can the commander go on his own trip, in the middle of the war, away from the main battle zone, leaving his soldiers to fend for themselves? When Ayodhya Ram temple, uniform civil code and puja at the southern cellar of Gyanvapi mosque are shaping the electoral battle lines, Gandhi would rather defend his ‘values’ and keep training his guns at Gautam Adani! The growing consensus is that the Congress is either blissfully unaware of how the Bharatiya Janata Party is setting up the contours of the poll battle or has chosen to live to fight another day—in 2029 or later.

When one talks to Congress leaders, their sense of resignation is acute: What can they do when Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains at the peak of his popularity, when the people are swayed by the BJP’s ‘majoritarianism’ and when voters don’t know what’s good or bad for them (sarcasm intended)? Well, it’s never too late to start. There are at least seven things the Congress can do.

First, don’t wait for PM Modi to hang up his boots. Nobody can say whether it will happen in 2029 or 2034 or even later. Besides, the BJP won’t suddenly become brittle after Modi takes a bow. Not because there is a long line of mass leaders and potential successors like Yogi Adityanath. But because the party has built four solid, durable pillars of strength, thanks to PM Modi, as poll strategist Prashant Kishor told me in an interview on Sunday—Hindutva, nationalism, labharthi (beneficiaries of welfare schemes) and financial muscle. One can’t but agree with PK. These pillars will stand the party in good stead even post-Modi.

Second, Congress leaders and the rank and file must start working for the party, not for the Gandhis exclusively. They are focused on Rahul Gandhi’s image makeover yet again- from an angry young man in 2013-14 who ran down his own party’s Prime Minister by debunking the government’s ordinance, a self-styled anti-corruption crusader with chowkidar chor hai slogan in 2018-19 to a merchant of love in 2023-24. This is not to suggest that Congress leaders should abandon the Gandhis, which they can’t in the foreseeable future anyway. This is to point out that Indira Gandhi was the last in the Congress to attain a cult status. The BJP has had so many in the meantime and new ones are emerging. What I am driving at is the need to focus on the Congress’ weaknesses and strengths, not the Gandhis’. The two being synonymous today is a problem.

Third, it’s good for the Congress that INDIA, the opposition grouping, is disintegrating. It should stop hanging on others’ coattails to survive. Most, if not all, of these parties ate into the Congress vote bank to become what they have. Ignore their anti-BJP, anti-Modi pronouncements. They are still looking to grow at the Congress’ expense. For instance, Mamata Banerjee was claiming to be generous by offering two seats in Malda (North and South) to the Congress in an alliance in West Bengal. What she didn’t spell out was that the offer didn’t include Beherampor seat, held by Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary since 1999. It’s along similar lines that other INDIA constituents are negotiating with the Congress. The party must stop looking for survival by tying up with regional parties. Its footprints have only been shrinking in one state after another due to alliances. The Congress needs to reverse the process if it wants to take on the BJP.

Fourth, learn from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), instead of vilifying it. Rahul Gandhi has made it his mission to fight against Modi as an individual and the RSS as an organisation or so it seems from his speeches. Gandhi obviously hates the RSS ideology but making it a centrepoint of his politics isn’t exactly clever. He ends up advertising the RSS. He may or may not have a point about its alleged acts of omission and commission today or in the past but he should do a reality check— Is it fetching any additional votes for the Congress? For all we know, it may be alienating people who may be beneficiaries or sympathisers of the RSS, due to its socio-cultural programmes, but who may not necessarily be BJP voters. The Congress should rather learn from the RSS how to reach out to people, and how to be a part of their day-to-day lives. Ideological indoctrination comes later. Instead of ranting against the RSS, it would serve the Congress a great deal if it floats a similar organisation to work at the grassroots for the social-cultural-economic uplift of the people. It has to start with the disbanding of the Seva Dal which has gone beyond redemption.

Need for ideology

Fifth, political convenience or opportunism is not an ideology. It must have clarity about where it stands. Facing charges of pursuing minority appeasement, the Congress is playing twister. It opposed the Citizenship Amendment law but the Gandhis wouldn’t join Shaheen Bagh protesters just a few kilometres from their Lutyens’ Delhi home. The party’s top leadership boycotted the Ram Lalla’s consecration ceremony calling it an electoral project but lacked the courage of conviction to instruct other party leaders to follow the same. Such ideological ambiguity impresses neither the Hindus nor the Muslims. The appeasement tag won’t go away just with Gandhi visiting temples and trying to become a bigger Hindu. The love vs. hate narrative is like preaching to the converted—the Left-liberal intelligentsia. The BJP has enough propaganda machinery to convert it into another Muslim appeasement campaign. To reach beyond its ecosystem, the Congress needs to be an unapologetic secular, liberal entity. For instance, they should have gone to Bilkis Bano’s house and also to that of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal who was hacked to death by two Muslim men. Staying away from both sides impresses neither.

Sixth, the Congress must learn the language to communicate. Rhetorical speeches about poverty, inequality, unemployment and inflation aren’t good enough. People have been hearing them since Independence. The party needs to go to the people with an alternative policy framework, not unemployment allowances and NYAY-like doles. It has to spell out how it can do better. Don’t just criticise the new criminal laws, saying that they would unleash “draconian powers” and “impede citizens’ rights” and that they were ‘bulldozed’ through Parliament. Unless you tell the people how they are draconian and why they affect their day-to-day lives, nobody would bother to listen.

To give an example, the party could have hit the streets to tell the people in towns and villages why they should be worried about the increase in police custody period from 15 days to 60 or 90 days.

Rahul Gandhi keeps talking about increasing government control over institutions. But he had nothing to say when the government introduced the Indian Institute of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023 that would enable the government to have total control over IIM boards and directors. The party has to find out why the people aren’t listening to even genuine concerns. For instance, it raises valid points about Chinese transgressions. Go and check it out in villages. People there are convinced that China is scared of PM Modi and is running for cover. The same goes for the failure of the Constitutional machinery in Manipur. The opposition party will have to learn new communication skills.

Seventh, don’t make politics and elections a battle of ideologies as Rahul Gandhi says. It’s a battle for power. He may have a vision but it serves no objective without power. His projection of an ideologue with detachment from power is rather a dampener for those who would want their votes to matter.

I know there is one question everybody always has in mind: How can the Congress take on the BJP without a blueprint for organisational rejuvenation? That’s, of course, the most difficult part. Born out of a mass movement, the party never had a cadre. It’s especially difficult to build one now. Who will join when the party is on a continuous slide and for what? Anti-Modiism? Because it offers nothing else right now. That’s why the Congress first needs to emerge as a credible opposition voice with the potential to replace the BJP as the ruling party. Once the people start believing in the Congress, it won’t be difficult to rebuild the organisation from the booth to the top levels. But, first, make people believe in what the Congress stands for and why they should vote for it. It may sound like a chicken and egg situation but it’s not.

DK Singh is ThePrint’s Political Editor. Views are personal.

(Edited by Theres Sudeep)