Spotlight shifts to Kharge

With the Congress Plenary session slated for the coming week, the spotlight which was on Rahul Gandhi during his Bharat Jodo Yatra may now shift to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge. The AICC session assumes great political significance since it shall lay down the blueprint for the future course of action, ahead of the crucial Assembly as well as Parliamentary polls.
Over the past years, the Congress has become immensely weak organizationally and therefore has been losing one election after the other with a few exceptions which are largely on account of local and regional reasons. Overall, in order to take on the might of the BJP, the Congress needs to strengthen itself from the block level upwards.
What has happened in the past couple of decades is that more than 100 office-bearers within the party have been appointed and the majority of them have no hold in the areas from where they hail or nobody even knows them. In fact, the AICC staff is also unaware of the credentials of these rootless wonders who are both inaccessible as well as absent most of the time.
When Indira Gandhi broke the party for the second time in 1978, there was only one general secretary—Buta Singh. Later keeping in mind the state Assembly elections, the services of Abdul Rehman Antulay were requisitioned. Even after the first split in 1969, the Indira Gandhi faction was led by Babu Jagjivan Ram with Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna as an effective and efficient general secretary.
The current leadership needs to revive some of the better practices of earlier times where those who held offices remained approachable and met people. Chandrajit Yadav as the party general secretary in the 1970s would always be available at 8 am in the morning and would regularly meet whoever came to his residence. Each activist was offered tea and biscuits and made to look important and if any assistance was needed to book railway tickets, this too was always provided.
Though many leaders at an individual level may still be pursuing these policies, Madhya Pradesh former Chief Minister Kamal Nath did whatever he could do for the workers of his Chhindwara constituency as long as he represented it in the Lok Sabha. His residence on Tughlaq Road was an open house for residents of Chhindwara where all help was rendered. It was not surprising that even in the Narendra Modi wave of 2019, Kamal Nath was able to get his son elected from his constituency easily.
The AICC sessions were always looked upon as occasions which would rejuvenate the party further. What started happening was that due to reasons best known to those who were in control, a policy of segregation started being observed. Only those speakers who were likely to speak in favour of the leadership were provided an opportunity and it was not a free expressing forum any longer.
The highlight of the AICC plenary would always be that the members mixed freely with office-bearers, MPs and colleagues who occupied ministerial positions. The lunch and high tea or breakfast were all at the same venue. However, over a period of time, different enclosures were set up which would barricade the common member from having access to the leadership. Everyone ate at the designated places and those in control remained unapproachable for the ordinary member.
Mr Kharge has immense experience and he would do a great service to his party if he ends this and once again makes the session a forum where any grievances can be voiced openly and those invited have complete access to the party functionaries. There is certainly no need to have excessive office bearers and only those who have contributed to the party should be brought in to strengthen the organization on merit and not because they were close to one political leader or the other.
It is expected that the elections to the Congress Working Committee would be held in order to make this body both meaningful and effective and not comprising sycophants and rootless people. If the Congress has to be strengthened, its supreme bodies should have members with gravitas and not merely those who make it there because of their proximity with powerful people within the organisation. It is also a subject of speculation whether the Congress Parliamentary Board would be revived at the session so that the final decisions regarding any major political and significant event can be taken there by the members.
Mallikarjun Kharge has struggled to be where he is today and knows what must have taken him to undertake this long political voyage to the top. He must help the party to revive itself by reclaiming its lost vote base. The Congress can only move forward to take on the BJP, if its original vote base of Brahmins, Dalits and Muslims becomes its main support backup.
The Gandhis are important to the party and must play a major role in its resurrection but they must allow Kharge to have a free hand in reshaping the organization. Rahul Gandhi has had an image makeover and expectations from him have risen. However, in the interest of his party and overall opposition unity, he must declare at Raipur that he would not be the Prime Ministerial face for 2024.
In a Modi versus Rahul contest, it is obvious that the Prime Minister has a distinct advantage. However, if Rahul withdraws himself, the BJP would have to rethink its strategy as well. Between us.