The hard left push that is taking Congress on a suicidal path

If attacking senior leader Shashi Tharoor was not bad enough, the hard-left faction of the Congress, India’s oldest political party, currently in thrall to its former president Rahul Gandhi and his current left-of-centre vision, publicly took a go at DK Shivakumar, deputy chief minister of the Congress government in Karnataka.

Congress strongman DKS, as he is ubiquitously referred to, committed the crime of being seen at the public celebration of Shivratri at the Sadhguru ashram where Union Home Minister, Amit Shah was also present. Earlier, Shivakumar had taken a dip at the Maha Khumb and publicly praised the administration as effective.

These two public acts were viewed as heresies by the Congress social media warriors in thrall to some imaginary version of hardline secularism where they would like to send “offenders” to the Soviet gulag. These hardliners would find it difficult to win a poll even on Twitter, but that has never deterred them.

Sadhguru has many controversies attached to him. He is perceived as being close to the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS), the mothership of the BJP and the Modi government, and has publicly ridiculed Rahul Gandhi. Attending his event was like crossing over to the dark side, felt the Congress hardliners.

The public fracas that ensued put the spotlight squarely on the internal divisions and the internecine battles of the Congress. A defiant DKS said he was born a Hindu and would die one, thumbing his nose at his detractors. Worse, he was unrepentant about attending the Shivaratri event. He said he had “lord Shiva” in his name and so did Congress President, Malikaarjun Kharge. And he went on to ask those who were attacking if they would suggest that the 80-year-old Kharge change his name.

The new political untouchability across political parties in India is a by-product of the politics of personal animosity and personal attacks, pioneered by Modi against the Gandhi family. It’s an awful development because in a democracy you can oppose someone without it becoming personal. Sadly in Congress, any attempt to reach across the aisle is now viewed as disloyalty and an attempt to cross over to the BJP. The leader in the dock is almost purged from the party which is hardly conducive to democracy or even inner-party democracy.

Both Tharoor and DKS, popular leaders who attract a broad swathe of voters and need to win elections, fell victim to this new mentality in the Congress.

Perhaps the top leadership of the Congress, which is effectively the three Gandhi family members -Sonia Gandhi and her two children Priyanka and Rahul - are paranoid over the talent drain unheard in Congress history. Since 2014, the party has seen a near-constant stream of defectors including Himanta Biswa Sarma (Chief Minister of Assam), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Union Minister), Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh, and Milind Deora - all at one time seen as the Gen next of the Congress and perceived to be close to Gandhi. When young leaders desert Congress for power in the ruling BJP, older leaders like Kapil Sibal have been forced out for going public about the lack of accountability in the party after electoral losses.

Gandhi who effectively leads the Congress today has presided over nearly 80 elections and lost three general elections on the trot. Even after this dismal and disastrous track record, he continues to command the Congress and keeps pushing it into ideological cul de sacs.

After every electoral loss, such as the ones in Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi, Gandhi promises introspection and action - yet nothing changes in the party. KC Venugopal, the general secretary who calls all the shots, keeps presiding over a shambolic organisation which today is virtually left with no ground cadre. Gandhi is inaccessible to all those who are not part of his current palace coterie.

With elections due in Kerala next year, Tharoor tried to raise the issues of leadership and strategies for winning the elections in the state where the Congress has lost twice in a row in a bipolar polity. As Tharoor told Gulf News exclusively, Gandhi was “polite and courteous but, not receptive”. Political translation: Venugopal and the “lifers” of the Congress in Kerala will continue to call all the shots even if it means making it a trifecta of losses in the state.

The hard left push of the Congress, which is a wide umbrella party that used to accommodate all streams of ideology and people, including devout Hindus, is worrying the senior leaders, who still need to retain their broad appeal to the masses. Says a senior leader, “Hindus make up an overwhelming majority in India with nearly 85 per cent of the population. Should we cede this vote in perpetuity to the BJP and resign ourselves to being a fringe party like the Left with no realistic chance of ever coming into power?”

The BJP effectively owns the Hindutva plank and Yogi Adityanath is a testament to the dizzying heights an effective optics of Kumbh management can take you. Yogi Adityanath parked himself in Prayagraj for the entire duration of the Maha Kumbh and has ensured that he is catapulted to the top ranks of the BJP, effectively positioning himself as Modi’s heir apparent in politics.

The Congress has the daunting task of winning back the Yogi voters in states like Uttar Pradesh at a time when except for the tiny Himachal Pradesh it is all but wiped out in North India. UP with its 80 Lok Sabha seats is the gateway to power in Delhi and until the Congress comes to grips with its existential crisis in UP it can forget about ruling India again.

With this new hard-left push of questioning the faith and devotion of the majority community and attacking leaders like Tharoor and DKS who wear their Hindu identity on their sleeve, the Congress is again on a suicidal political path. But, that is nothing new for the party under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership.