5 august 2019 http://www.openthemagazine.com 33
party leaders were of the view that there were very few takers for
the campaign on the ground. They were aware that Gandhi was
being misled by some among his chosen team into believing that
the Congress stood more than a fighting chance at forming the
next Government at the Centre, ousting Modi. And that Rahul
Gandhi would be either prime minister or, at the very least, king-
maker. During the campaign, Gandhi is known to have got upset
with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior party leader Ka-
mal Nath because the latter did not join the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’
chorus. It is such stubbornness which refuses to acknowledge the
reality on the ground–instead of getting curious as to why this
veteran of so many electoral battles, and one with a lot at stake
in this one, was lukewarm to the Rafale campaign—that high-
lighted Gandhi’s inexperience.
Till date, not a single Congress leader has come on record—
most prefer to say it privately—on the possibility that Rahul
Gandhi’s aggressive campaign against Modi, targeting him for
imagined breach of propriety, had boomeranged on the party.
Talk to any Congress leader of consequence and he/she will tell
you that it did not go down well with the voters. Gandhi himself
reacted with anger at the Election Commission and even at his
own colleagues, choosing not to acknowledge that voters rejected
his campaign and that he had come up short in a presidential
contest where he pitted himself against the more popular and
trusted Modi.
Many compared Rahul Gandhi’s resignation to a captain de-
serting his ship in stormy waters. In the weeks of confusion that
followed his refusal to reconsider his decision, Gandhi’s acolytes
floated the ‘demolish the headquarters’ theory, by which they
maintained that the party organisation had been the big liability
on the Congress’ path to electoral success. Echoing Gandhi’s own
sense of hurt and desertion, they hold that it was the party ‘organ-
isation’ (euphemism for a host of other party leaders) that was a
burden on him and that blocked Gandhi’s attempt to leverage his
popularity. Espousing this view, Sachin Rao, strategic adviser to
Gandhi in the Youth Congress and the NSUI, and an integral part
of his handpicked team, was heard telling people that “the party
will rise, once again, like a Phoenix from the ashes”.U
NDER SoNIA GANDHI, the party outsourced all
of its intellectual content to the Left. Rahul Gandhi’s
acolytes—who have argued that the party organisa-
tion has become unwieldy—are now keen that the party carry
out a drastic restructuring through a purge. This, amid repeated
questions about the exact ideology the Congress espouses and its
inability to spell it out. It is their case that though the organisation
would suffer from the widespread slash and burn in the short run,
it would finally emerge much stronger, empowered by a new
crop of leaders with ideological clarity and clear objectives. An
organisation cast in Rahul Gandhi’s image that would be in sync
with his instincts and worldview. This is a course of action that
Gandhi reportedly backs, one that would give him a free hand to
keep his favourites in the revamped organisation.
The irony couldn’t be sharper: here was an argument that
the president of the biggest opposition party would have doneraHuL gandHI Has been sInguL arLy CLueLess about tHe radICaL
CHanges on tHe ground tHat Have ImpaCted tHe Congress’ poLItICaL
fortunes. In a natIon domInated by youtH beLow 35, a new
generatIon Is not enamoured of tHe Idea of dynastIC LeadersHIp
(Second from left)
Sonia Gandhi,
Rahul Gandhi,
Manmohan Singh
and others at AICC
headquarters,
May 25, New DelhiPhotograph by aShiSh Sharma