It could have been a watershed moment for India’s Congress party, but the 128-year-old monolith yet again shied away from raising the bar — perhaps fearful of committing its biggest brand equity (read Rahul Gandhi) to what it thought could be a fatal exposure to a take-no-prisoners political bloodbath that the 2014 general elections appear to foretell.
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in New Delhi last Friday was expected to produce quite a blockbuster, in the sense that political circles, both within and outside the leading party in India’s ruling coalition, were agog with the possibility of Rahul, the party vice-president, being anointed as the prime ministerial candidate. However, just a day before the AICC session and during her speech at Talkatora Stadium, party president Sonia Gandhi categorically ruled out such a possibility. “It is against the Congress party’s tradition to name a prime ministerial candidate before elections. The Constitution of India also says that the prime minister is chosen by the elected members of the majority party in the Lok Sabha (Lower House),” was the logic put forward by Sonia and several other party leaders. But the point is, given the rising popularity of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — an absolute rookie outfit that has taken India’s electoral politics by storm — and the high-decibel campaign machinery of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the 2014 elections pose a challenge for the Congress that is way beyond the scope of a mere academic, theory-heavy, orthodox response. The challenge that Congress faces in roughly three months from now is a challenge like no other. After the party’s debacle in the recent state elections, Congress ought to have looked for a game changer to rejuvenate the sagging morale of party workers. And one way of doing that could have been by naming Rahul as the prime ministerial candidate. True, Rahul’s performance at the helm of party affairs in recent times hasn’t offered much to an ordinary Congress worker to feel terribly excited about. But all said and done, the Gandhi scion is still the best hope for an organisation that has accepted the nation’s most high-profile family name as the all-encompassing, unifying factor running through party rank and file.
The criticism over dynastic rule notwithstanding, there is no denying the fact that the kind of allegiance and awe that the ‘Gandhi’ surname commands within the party can scarcely be matched by any other Congress leader. Therefore, given Sonia’s failing health and daughter Priyanka’s minimal role in party affairs, Rahul is the Congress’ best option to counter Modi. In fact, many had expected Sonia to rope in Priyanka for a much bigger say in the run-up to the 2014 polls, but even that has not happened. So, Rahul is the party’s face, whichever way one looks at the prism.
However, a fervent, high-pitched, aggressive speech by Rahul — undoubtedly the best ever by his standards — was all that was there for take-away for an average party member from Friday’s session, as the Congress leadership continued to keep its most potent weapon mothballed, Teflon-wrapped for some other day ... some other time.
In view of the fast-changing dynamics of present-day politics in India, uttering such frustrating profanities as “Congress tradition” and keeping Rahul away from the direct glare of a much-anticipated ‘Modi-vs-Rahul’ bout can only be counter-productive if Congress is at all serious about giving BJP a run for its money.
Immediate brand recall
In his speech, particularly the part delivered in chaste Hindi, Rahul did reach out to an average party worker — clearly deviating from the written script and adding a lot of personal touch to it. For once his words did not sound hackneyed and had enough passion in them to strike a chord with an ordinary Congressman. But it is unfortunate that words were all he had to enthuse a moribund unit that seems to be trying hard to keep track of its sell-by date. This was the Congress leadership’s best chance to tell the grass roots workers that no fight is over until it’s over and no battle worth its name is ever served on a platter. The party leadership ought to have told its supporters that the AAP and BJP may have taken the wind out of the Congress sail, but this is a party that has weathered many a storm since pre-Independence days. And the best way to convey that message would have been by catapulting Rahul for the top job — to provide party workers with a highly tangible mascot, one with an immediate brand recall, for them to turn it into a mainstay of campaigning.
The Congress leadership, and Sonia in particular, will probably come to realise very soon that by keeping Rahul away from the stifling heat in the kitchen, they have done his political career more harm than good. By avoiding the next elections from being tagged as a Rahul-vs-Modi slugfest, the Congress leadership has managed to acknowledge only one thing — fear factor. And just because of that, on the template of psychological warfare, BJP is already one-up on its arch-rival.
