Congress mess

The Congress has been a house divided for quite a while. The tussle between the old guard and the young brigade, a clueless and spineless high command, and the party’s growing disconnect with the masses have led to debacles in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress has also helplessly seen Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka slip out of its grasp despite having formed the government in both states. Even by the party’s ever-falling standards, the ‘letter bomb’ hurled by over 20-odd senior leaders at Sonia Gandhi ahead of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting was a new low. These leaders demanded a ‘full-time, visible’ president, overhauling of the organisational structure through elections to the CWC and reconstitution of the parliamentary board. The demands, per se, are reasonable; what’s unreasonable, or rather malicious, is that the letter writers went public with intra-party matters that could easily have been taken up behind closed doors at Monday’s meeting.

Some of these ‘pro-reform’ leaders, bereft of winnability in the electoral arena, have done precious little to reinvigorate the beleaguered party. Had they really believed in ‘collective leadership’, they would have by now admitted their role in the party’s free fall and made amends. The fact that they are still around indicates that these opportunists have their own axe to grind and won’t desist from enfeebling the party.

The stormy CWC meeting further accentuated the deep fissures within the party. The allegation/insinuation that some of the dissenters were playing into the hands of the BJP can’t be brushed aside, despite the damage control by the party that prompted Kapil Sibal to retract his outburst on Twitter. The BJP has been feeding on the Congress’ infighting in recent years, growing more powerful partly due to lack of resistance from the main Opposition party. It’s no secret that the ruling party is simply waiting for the Congress to implode. The onus is on the latter to close ranks and make a fresh start, with or without the Gandhis at the helm. It’s time for the Congress to act resolutely for its own good.