The five-hour long meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi to have a face to face discussion with some of the dissidents, was inconclusive.
NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi’s declaration that he was willing to accept any responsibility entrusted to him by the party has sent a strong signal that he would continue to wield maximum authority in the Congress. However, he made it abundantly clear that it was most important to re-energise the party regardless of whoever became the president, thereby giving rise to speculation that he was yet to make up his mind on whether to make a comeback as the party chief.
The five-hour long meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi to have a face to face discussion with some of the dissidents, was inconclusive and could lead to another round of interaction at a later date. A group of invitees led by A.K. Antony and Ambika Soni made a strong pitch for Rahul Gandhi’s reinstatement, but many others did not appear to be too enthusiastic about the idea.
In fact, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, pointed out that things had further deteriorated since he and his 22 other colleagues had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi in August. Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Kamal Nath, who played a major role in arranging the meeting held on the lawns of 10, Janpath, also commented that in the view of many activists the party was collapsing.
Significantly, K.C. Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala, two of Rahul Gandhi’s key aides, were not invited for the meeting and Ajay Maken, general secretary and also considered to be part of the Rahul coterie, unusually walked in one hour late. Those who attended included Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Harish Rawat, Ashok Gehlot, Bhakt Charan Dass, P. Chidambaram, Pawan Bansal, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor. It could not be ascertained whether Kapil Sibal was invited since he is abroad and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a notable absentee.
Congress veterans interpreted the developments as the continuation of status quo where Rahul would wield overriding powers as he has been doing since the past several years. Even during the tenure of interim president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul was the one who took all the crucial decisions. Therefore, the points raised by the dissidents remain unaddressed even though they were granted an audience with the Gandhis. There were assurances that the irritants would be taken care of during an AICC session where the collective wisdom of the party would prevail. In other words, it meant that the Gandhis would have the maximum say in the affairs of the organisation, which is not responding adequately to the growing influence of the BJP in the country.
The meeting took place eight days before the Congress observes its 135th anniversary and it is unlikely that the functioning within the party would undergo any drastic change even if a non-Gandhi is elected as the next chief. He would find it extremely difficult to counter the Gandhis.
The idea behind the discussion was both to break the ice with the dissenters as also to acknowledge their existence by reacting to the letter which served as the “Calling Attention Motion”. But as soon as the meeting ended, Gandhi loyalists were at work giving a spin to what had transpired inside 10, Janpath.
One claim was that when Rahul said that he was willing to accept any responsibility, the rest of the people clapped, something which never happened. The atmosphere was serious and no theatrics took place. Even Rahul’s comments were sought to be torn out of context and presented inaccurately. While no one was critical of Rahul Gandhi during the discussion, the general impression was that he was unlikely to change his method of working. Rahul and sister, Priyanka both stressed on the need for better communication with the grassroots workers.
The average Congress worker has been expressing the opinion that the party needs direction which only a 24X7 politician can provide. Even the essence of the letter written by the dissidents conveyed to the high command the need to make the party more vibrant, thus communicating that the current leadership had failed to do so.
Party insiders said that Sonia Gandhi had nudged some of those close to her to prop up Rahul’s name since as time passes, his reinstatement would become impossible. Since the past few weeks, an attempt has been made to convince the Congress workers that it was Rahul alone who out of all the opposition leaders had been displaying courage to take on Narendra Modi. However, party activists believe that he has his priorities mixed up and often his political responses are “schizophrenic”.
If the high command does not come out with a blueprint at an early date, things within the party would start sliding further. The organisation does not exist in most places and the majority of office bearers made in-charge of states have no inkling about the dynamics of contesting elections.