The Bharatiya Janata Party is falling back on the Congress yet again to win the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana.
Listen to Amit Shah and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders’ election speeches. They are all about the Congress — how it took the Kashmir issue to British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, how it is opposing the BJP’s attempt to drive out infiltrators, and how it ‘mocked’ Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for following the Indian tradition of ‘shastra puja’ on the Rafale fighter jet.
It’s an irony that five years after it dislodged the Congress from power at the Centre and in many states, the BJP continues to seek a mandate against the opposition party, and with so much certitude. Congressmen can do nothing but curse and squirm. Many of them know the way out, but don’t have the heart or the guts to spell it out. They know there is just one solution — another ‘supreme sacrifice’ by interim president Sonia Gandhi, one last time.
In 1998, she had plunged into politics to save the Congress. In an interview with Shekhar Gupta for NDTV’s Walk The Talk programme in February 2004, Sonia Gandhi had talked about how she felt “pangs of guilt” every time she passed by her husband Rajiv Gandhi’s portrait in her living room — that she was not doing enough to revive the Congress.
A little over two decades later, she may be feeling the same. But she is confronted with a conflict of interests — those of her children and those of the party. The Nehru-Gandhi family must step aside and free the party of its grip. There are three reasons why Sonia Gandhi must make this ‘supreme sacrifice’ if the Congress has to be revived.
Also read: Sonia Gandhi message to party — tweeting not enough, more important to fight on the street
The family is a liability
First, the Nehru-Gandhi family is no more an asset, except for the BJP. The ruling party has successfully made the family synonymous with everything that agitates the public mind today — dynastic politics, corruption, entitlement and inefficiency. How much of it should be attributed to the BJP’s propaganda machinery and how much to the Congress party’s inability to counter it is anybody’s guess. But the fact is that every time Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah take a jibe at the Nehru-Gandhi family, there are smiles and grins in the audience. Those jibes may not always be fair, but people seem to endorse them.
Addressing a public meeting in Maharashtra’s Sangli Thursday, Amit Shah asked people to end the dynasties of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the coming elections.
Not that the BJP doesn’t have dynasts. In Maharashtra, veteran leader Gopinath Munde’s daughter, Pankaja Munde, was made a minister in Devendra Fadnavis’ cabinet and has been given the party ticket again. The BJP denied a ticket to veteran party leader Eknath Khadse, who had to resign as revenue minister on charges of corruption, but gave it to his daughter Rohini. Former state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve’s son Santosh has been re-nominated. In the party’s first list, 25 candidates are family members of BJP leaders.
In Haryana, it has fielded Aditya Devi Lal, grandson of Devi Lal, and Bhajan Lal’s nephew Dura Ram Bishnoi, among others. The Treasury Benches in the Lok Sabha are occupied by many dynasts — Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun, Anurag Thakur, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Poonam Mahajan to name just a few.
Yet, when Modi or Shah criticise the Congress for promoting dynasts, it’s greeted with claps and laughter — as if only the Congress has dynasts. But that tells us how the people have grown weary of the Nehru-Gandhi family. As it is, the Gandhis can’t get votes for the Congress any longer.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi has taken a backseat, but his team is running Congress show
Family’s disconnect with the masses
Second, the Nehru-Gandhi family members have lost connect with the masses, their feelings, hopes and aspirations. Rahul Gandhi has been so busy fighting an “ideological” battle with the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that he has lost sight of the political battle. Promising a review of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and sedition laws in the party’s 2019 manifesto post-Balakot airstrikes were tantamount to political suicide, but he wouldn’t compromise on his ideological beliefs.
He wasn’t much impressed by his party colleagues’ appeals to respect the public sentiments about the defanging of Article 370 either, as he boarded a flight for Srinagar, ostensibly to expose the government’s claims of normalcy in the Valley. When the UK Overseas Congress delegation met Corbyn to talk about “human rights situation” in Kashmir, it was probably trying to please the former Congress president. Sam Pitroda, Rahul’s close aide, chairs the India Overseas Congress. Gandhi’s ceaseless diatribe against the RSS may not fetch any extra votes but he must talk about the Sangh ad infinitum because the ideological battle must take precedence.
It seems to be rubbing off on his party colleagues, too. Addressing a gathering in Raipur Thursday, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel berated the RSS, saying that the Sangh’s nationalism is inspired by “Hitler and Mussolini”. My colleague, Deeksha Bhardwaj, who was covering the event decided to check with the audience what people made of it. They happened to know Hitler as “a dictator” but seemed clueless about the Italian dictator. “Woh bhi goondagardi karta tha (Mussolini too was a ruffian),” a young man came forward to explain. You can only imagine the Dalits’ response to Rahul Gandhi’s message to them that they need the “escape velocity” of Jupiter to succeed.
The family’s focus on ideology has somehow resulted in total confusion about everything people would like to hear from the principal opposition party. So, there is radio silence at the Congress headquarters when Amit Shah dares the party to spell out a clear stance on Article 370, on the BJP’s resolve to construct a Ram Mandir at the disputed site in Ayodhya, on the National Register of Citizens, et al.
Also read: What Sonia Gandhi could learn from Queen Elizabeth II
Family is no longer the glue
Third, the Nehru-Gandhi family is no longer the glue that once kept the party together, the biggest argument that its supporters proffered to justify its continuance.
The Congress has been witnessing an exodus of leaders as they see no future in the party. Many are forced to stay back because the BJP can’t accommodate them. Even the committed party leaders have doubts about the ability of the first family to pull the party through this crisis. Senior leader Salman Khurshid, whose remarks about Rahul Gandhi “walking away” triggered a storm in the party, is not the only one feeling this way.
The seniors continue to hold Sonia Gandhi in respect but are uneasy about her decision to take charge of the party as interim president to keep the seat warm for Rahul Gandhi whenever he chooses to return. A veteran leader who swears by his loyalty to the Gandhi family conceded to this author last week that while the public sentiments about the Modi government were changing on the ground, “she (Sonia Gandhi) will have to give up putra moh (affection for her son)” if she wants the revival of the Congress.
Is Sonia Gandhi listening?