The Congress’s Existential Crisis Has a Surname. Will a Sister’s Turn Change Its Fate?

Because we live in such extreme partisan times, it is more than likely that senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s plea for organisational repair will be misconstrued as some kind of a soft ‘revolt’; worse he may be tarred with dishonourable intent for drawing attention to the big, dead elephant in the Congress room.

There can be no getting away from the fact that as the Indian National Congress completes 140 years, it faces an existential crisis. This is an inexplicable paradox of our times. All said and done, it is a party that ought to be proud of its glorious legacy of having led a unique and successful nationalist struggle against a powerful colonial ruler; it is also a party that ought to be fiercely proud of its legacy of national consolidation and modern state building, under Jawaharlal Nehru, that too in the hostile Cold War era; and, it is a party that can legitimately take pride in having re-aligned the national economy with the changed requirements of the age of globalization and the needs and aspirations of a changing India.

Instead, it finds itself trapped in the Family Leadership Matrix. The presence of an ‘elected’ president has made no difference to the reality of the Family’s stranglehold. Congress leaders have given up trying to get rid of the yoke, even after three successive parliamentary defeats under the Family’s watch. If anything, the vise-like grip of the Family has never been more potent, now that Priyanka Gandhi has legitimised her political role after getting elected to Parliament from Wayanad.

Exasperated party leaders lament – bitterly and dejectedly – that Rahul Gandhi remains impervious to the all too obvious need for a responsible and sober national opposition. Instead, he remains cozy and comfortable in his own bubble, created for him by a Pretorian Guard that has nothing in common with the Congress culture and ethos. The coterie seems to have convinced him that the Congress is a ‘movement’ and that there is thus no point in spending time, energy and resources in building up an organisation.

Historically, the Congress has never undertaken any kind of organised party restructuring – primarily because it was, for a long time, a governing party. The only time a sort of generational shift took place was in 1969 when the old guard (the Syndicate) parted company with Indira Gandhi, making room for a younger crop of leaders to move into positions of power and responsibility. Again, in 1978-79, a mini-split took place with leaders like Sharad Pawar and A.K. Anthony choosing to walk out of the Sanjay Gandhi shadow. Quite a few individual leaders have ‘revolted’ – Pranab Mukherjee in 1985-86, Arjun Singh, N.D. Tiwari and others in 95-96, Sharad Pawar, P. Sangma and Tariq Anwar in 1999 – without seriously damaging the Congress brand. The core of the Congress has chosen to remain loyal to the Family.

Understandably, Rahul Gandhi would not require much convincing because during his mother’s long – in fact, the longest – inning as party president, building up the organisation was never a high priority. The internal working mantra was that Family, and not Organisation, moved and mesmerised the masses.

Many party leaders are content to grant Rahul Gandhi his disdain and anger against the Congressmen. They trot out the poor excuse that ‘the young man’ holds the Congress party responsible for two deaths in his family – his grandmother’s and his father’s. This is a strange, if not bizarre, basis to a sound relationship between the leader and the led. Capturing an organisation and keeping it under control is one thing; capturing the imagination of the nation is another. Rahul Gandhi has not been able to dislodge Narendra Modi from the country’s imagination.

And here is the crux of our national dilemma; the country is getting tired of Narendra Modi and his brand of spectacle as governance model. After ten years, the claims of competence, integrity and unalloyed deshbhakti no longer impress. But it seems that the country is not ready to accept Rahul Gandhi in the bargain.

So, the conundrum for most Congressmen remains this: Without weakening the Family, how to rescue the Congress from Rahul Gandhi’s cultivated waywardness? Many Congressmen are inclined to see a way out in a much greater role of Priyanka Gandhi.

When Priyanka got elected to the Lok Sabha in 2024, quite a few Congressmen were apprehensive that she would outperform her brother and that apprehension seems to have been well founded. Her recent performance in the Lok Sabha has made many, in and out of Congress, wonder why she was not being assigned a larger profile and a bigger voice in the party’s affairs.

The irony is that Priyanka Gandhi is the ultimate dynast. Yet she has charmed out a kind of acceptance for herself. The Vadra baggage has lost its sharp edges over the years. Not only does she appear to most interlocutors as amiable and friendly, more and more Congressmen are coming around to the view that the time is ripe to empower her. Many are inclined to believe that the sister would do a better job of inspiring a sense of unity and purpose, not only among the Congressmen but among the secular and democratic voices and forces. She has learnt the lesson of powerlessness. Also, for all appearances she has also understood the importance of politeness and humility.

The irony of all ironies, it remains for the Family – and the Family alone – to take this most consequential call.

Harish Khare is a former editor-in-chief of The Tribune.

This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.

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